Zao Wou-Ki’s travels. A Quest beyond Appearances
Art Director of the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation, Co-Curator of Centennial Retrospective Exhibition of Zao Wou-Ki
赵无极基金会艺术总监、赵无极百年回顾特展策展人
Travels and discoveries. From New York to Hong Kong. His own abstraction. 1957-1970’s
旅行和发现 / 从纽约到香港 / 赵无极的抽象 / 1957年至20世纪70年代
In 1957, Zao Wou-Ki decided to leave France and to visit his brother Wou-Wai, in New Jersey, close to New York City. His brother settled in the United States in 1944. In New York, Zao Wou-Ki visited galleries and museums, met the main actors of abstract painting, and made deep connections with painters like Franz Kline, Philip Guston, Adolph Gottlieb, Saul Steinberg or James Brooks.
1957年，赵无极决定离开法国，前往纽约市附近的新泽西州探望他的弟弟赵无违。赵无违于1944年定居美国。在纽约期间，赵无极参观了许多画廊和博物馆，结识了抽象绘画的主要人物，并与弗朗兹·克莱恩、菲利普·加斯顿、阿道夫·戈特利布、索尔·斯坦伯格、詹姆斯·布鲁克斯等画家建立了深厚的友谊。
It has been a great discovery for him because at the time he left China, it was not a subject at all: New York did not exist as an art scene for him. He only wanted to go to Paris because for him the place to be was Paris, although he made friends with a lot American GI’s based there, like Sam Francis or Norman Bluhm. He was also friend with Joan Mitchell.
对他来说，纽约之行是一次发现之旅。因为当离开中国的时候，纽约对他来说并不作为一个艺术现场而存在。那个时候他一心只想去巴黎，对他来说，巴黎才是他该去的地方。尽管之后，他和很多驻扎在那里的美国大兵交了朋友，比如山姆·弗朗西斯和诺曼·布鲁姆。同时，他也是琼·米切尔的朋友。
In 1957, he took advantage of being in New York to sign a contract with the famous gallerist, Samuel Kootz, who will diffuse his work in American museums and collections. In New York, Zao Wou-Ki will be really impressed with the size, the gestural and chromatic freedom, as well as the freshness of the American paintings.
1957年，借着在纽约的机会，他与著名的库兹画廊签订了合同，他的作品开始在美国各大博物馆和收藏展中露出。在纽约，赵无极对美国绘画的尺幅、用笔、用色的自由和那种清新留下了深刻印象。
After New York, Zao Wou-Ki decided to make a travel with his friends Pierre and Colette Soulages all over America, from Chicago to San Francisco, then to Hawaii, and then to Japan. They stayed for a while in Japan, which leads him to consider the tradition of China ink and Far Eastern calligraphy.
之后，他决定与友人皮耶·苏拉吉夫妇环游美国。他们从芝加哥、旧金山，再到夏威夷。随后又在日本逗留了一段时间。在日本期间，赵无极将目光重新投向传统的中国水墨与东方书法。
Zao Wou-Ki finally decided to settle alone in Hong Kong in early 1958 for nearly 6 months, as a visiting professor at the School of Fine Arts of New Asia College. In Hong Kong, he met his second wife, May. It was his first real way back to China, even if Hong Kong was not really mainland China.
1958年初，赵无极终于决定以新亚书院美术学院客座教授的身份，在香港待6个月左右。也就是在那里，他认识了自己的第二任妻子陈美琴。可以说这是他第一次真正回到中国，虽然只是在中国香港，而不是中国大陆。
Zao Wou-Ki and May went back to Paris in August 1958. In the autumn of 1959, he bought a new house and created a new studio that would allow him to paint larger paintings.
1958年，赵无极和陈美琴回到巴黎。第二年秋天，他买了一栋新房子并创建了新的工作室，这使他可以创作更大尺幅的作品。
赵无极，《21.10.63》
1963年，布面油画，200 × 180 cm
摄影 © 中国美术学院
Zao Wou-Ki, 21.10.63, 1963, oil on canvas, 200 × 180 cm
Photo © China Academy of Art
The 1960s have been a period of intense creation, but also of many trips with May. They came back to New York City nearly each year for exhibitions at the Kootz Gallery. Sam Kootz urging him to create larger paintings for American collectors and his new studio brought Zao Wou-Ki to make large size works. When looking at 1960’s paintings, one can see his new style and the influence of the American painting: huge formats, free movements, freshness.
二十世纪60年代是赵无极的一个创作高峰，这期间，他也常常与妻子陈美琴一起四处旅行。几乎每年，他们都会去纽约库兹画廊参展。森姆·库兹敦促他为美国收藏家创作更大的作品，他的新工作室也请赵无极来创作大尺幅的作品。从他60年代的绘画中，我们可以看到赵无极新的绘画风格和美国绘画对他的影响：巨大的形式，自由的动作和新鲜感。
Zao Wou-Ki moved on to painting the space. He exploded or concentrated his compositions, he used relations between colors, but also played with the softness of monochrome halftones. In a way, he became freer, as we can see with the very big Hommage to Edgard Varèse, now part of the Musée cantonal des beaux-arts in Lausanne. We are not connected to the Chinese world of signs anymore: this is something completely new, a new space, a new rhythm.
也是从那时起，赵无极向绘画空间转变。他的构图或分裂或聚合，充分利用色彩关系，并巧妙运用单色画半色调的微妙变化。在某种程度上来说，他变得更自由。这是一幅名为《向埃德加·瓦雷兹致敬》的巨幅画作，目前藏于瑞士洛桑州立美术馆中。从中可以看出，它与中国符号不再有关联，而是一种全新的东西，一种新的空间，一种新的节奏。
As a conclusion: the slow rediscovery of China after 1972
结语：1972年后缓缓重新发现中国
赵无极，《无题》
1970年，纸本水墨，28 × 27.5 cm
赛努奇博物馆藏，法国巴黎，弗朗索瓦兹·马尔凯·赵赠送
图片来源 © Adagp, Paris
Zao Wou-Ki, Untitled, 1970, India ink on paper, 28 × 27.5 cm,
Musée Cernuschi collection, Paris. Gift of Françoise Marquet-Zao
Image Source: © Adagp, Paris
The early 1970s had been a hard period for Zao Wou-Ki, as his wife May’s illness became increasingly serious. For some time, Zao Wou-Ki sought refuge in his studio but he could hardly keep on painting with oil. He then followed his friend’s Henri Michaux advice: to reconnect with the technique of India ink. When he arrived in Paris, he had set ink aside in order not to be considered as a Chinese painter. He wanted to be considered as a painter above all and not as an exotic curiosity.
70年代初对赵无极来说是一段非常艰难的日子，妻子陈美琴病得很重。有一段时间他会躲在工作室里，但却无从下笔。后来，他听从了朋友亨利·米修的建议，重新使用墨水技法来创作。回想当初，刚到巴黎的赵无极为了不让别人认为自己只是一个中国画家，故意与中国技法划清了界限。因为当时的他首先希望人们把他看作一个画家，而不是一个异国奇才。
India ink became an essential element of his creation. He remembered the gestures learnt during his childhood with his grandfather. The more he played with ink, the more he rediscovered the power of the space and of the void. It changed his perception of space and modified his practice of oil painting.
用水墨作画成为他创作中的一个关键元素。他找回了幼年从祖父那里学到的技法。他玩弄笔墨，重拾空间和主体的力量。这也改变了他对空间的感知，改变了他的油画实践。
When comparing the paintingEn mémoire de May, made just after May passed away, and some India ink of the same period, one can see the deep connection and influence of this technique.
将陈美琴去世后不久创作的《纪念美琴》与他同时期一些水墨画相比较，可以看出这种技法的深刻联系和影响。
赵无极，《05.03.75—07.01.85》
1975-1985年，布面油画 ，250 × 260 cm
摄影：Naomi Wenger
Zao Wou-Ki, 05.03.75-07.01.85, 1975-1985, oil on canvas, 250 × 260 cm
Photo: Naomi Wenger
May died in March 1972. Zao Wou-Ki came back to China right after, for the first time since 1948. He visited his family, and from then on, he would frequently return, as in 1975 to conduct his mother’s funeral.
陈美琴于1972年3月去世，赵无极也在不久后回到中国大陆。这是他自1948年出国后第一次回归。他探望了家人，并从那时起经常回来。1975年，他回国为母亲操办了葬礼。
In 1983, he had his first exhibition in mainland China in Beijing and Hangzhou, and in 1985, he gave classes here in Hangzhou. During these trips, he immersed himself in landscape, in a nature in which he found a new breath. It was for him the occasion to let China comes back again in its creation. But this would be another journey to develop.
1983年，他在北京和杭州举办了中国大陆的第一次展览；1985年，他回到杭州母校授课。在一次次的旅途中，他沉浸于祖国的自然风光，找到了新的灵感。从某种程度上来说，这是他再次把中国元素融入艺术创作的时机，同时也是另一次发展之旅。
As you have seen with the several speeches held in this symposium and in the exhibition itself, there are many ways to read and understand Zao Wou-Ki’s work.
正如大家在此前的几场演讲以及展览中所看到的那样，品读和理解赵无极的作品有很多种方式。
One can believe he was only Chinese, one can believe he was French. One can imagine that his many trips from China to France, from France to New York City, New York City to Japan, Hong Kong, mainland China and so on, brought him to be a different painter. We can easily understand he was not only Chinese or not only French, because he did not want to be just that.
有人认为他只是一个中国人，也有人认为他只是一个法国人。然而从中国到法国，从法国到纽约，从纽约再到日本、中国香港、中国大陆等地，这些经历和旅程，让他成为了一位非同寻常的画家。他不仅是一个中国人，也不仅是一个法国人。正如他所希望的那样，不被归类于任何一种单一的身份。
He was far more than that, and also far less: he just wanted to be a painter.
他远不止于此，但也仅仅止于此：他只是一名画家。
And to end this short presentation, I would rather prefer to use his own words: “Can you imagine that? It is through Paul Cézanne that I came to French art, through Paul Klee that I went back to abstract art. And it is Rembrandt’s washes that revived my will to take back Chinese brushes, Chinese paper, India ink. And people go on asking me if I am a Chinese painter.”
最后，我想用他的原话来结束今天的演讲：“你能想象吗？正是通过保罗·塞尚，我接触到了法国艺术；通过保罗·克利，我回到了抽象艺术；而伦勃朗的墨笔画则激发了我，让我重拾中国的笔墨纸砚。但人们还是不断地问我，我是不是一个中国画家。”
This is the third part of the speech Yann Hendgen delivered at the forum, 'The Way Is Infinite: Zao Wou-Ki's World of Art', on September 20, 2023. This article is based on the audio record and approved by himself.
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