LAUSR

ABSTRACT Painter Zao Wou-ki (1920–2013) left China for France in 1948 in order to escape the rigidity of his traditional Chinese artistic training. It was in France, using the language of modernism, that Zao ultimately rediscovered and pushed the boundaries of classical Chinese aesthetics. Immersing himself in the works of artists such as Paul Klee, Paul Cézanne, and Henri Michaux, all of whom had been influenced by Asian visual culture, Zao ultimately discovered his voice in lyrical abstraction. Just as the reinterpretation of Asian aesthetics had pushed the limits of Western art in the late nineteenth century, the spontaneity of abstraction enabled Zao to transform the conventions of Chinese art. Although his work is often thought to reconcile contrasting artistic traditions, the power of his work lies in its confrontation with the boundaries of both.