Upon arriving in Paris, Zao Wou-Ki, who had trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, quickly became involved in the dynamic world of lyrical abstraction and befriended Henri Michaux, the ‘painter of movements,’ Joan Miró, and Pierre Soulages. Zao Wou-Ki chose exile at an early age, drawn to modern Western painting. On increasingly gigantic canvases, colour seems to take over, sometimes deployed with pomp and splendour, sometimes used sparingly as if with remorse. He painted ‘what can be understood without being seen’, no longer hesitating to return to ink, painting silence, black and white, fullness and emptiness. Although he mainly painted in oil on canvas, ink remained central to his work, especially under the influence of his friend Henri Michaux.

Encouraged by his friend Henri Michaux, this ‘barbarian in Asia’ who so skilfully probed the mysteries of the Chinese soul, the painter frenetically resumed this spiritual dialogue between emptiness and fullness to reweave the broken thread between his inner self and that of his ancestors. Despite his detachment from tradition, this technique nevertheless formed an integral part of his universe.

‘Zao Wou-Ki pours ink onto the hollow stone... He takes a brush with a white tuft measuring a good fifteen centimetres... He wets the tuft with water... He brings it close to the stone and wets it with ink... The sheet of ink is on the floor, on the studio floor... Zao Wou-Ki kneels beside it... You have to, he says, arrange the space.’

Dans un essai publié en 1989 (Encres, librairie Séguier), le critique d’art Bernard Noël décrit ainsi ce rituel silencieux et précis, un véritable corps à corps avec la peinture. « En déployant ces taches, la vie me devenait plus légère à vivre et le plaisir de ces gestes l’emportait sur les traces de ma mémoire », résumera l’artiste dans son autobiographie (Autoportrait, Zao Wou-Ki, 1988). Néanmoins, pour ce maître de l’abstraction lyrique, l’encre demeure principalement terrain d’expérimentation. Lors d’être dérivatif à sa pratique à l’huile sur toile, les encres de Zao Wou-Ki se détachent comme un art plus serein pour l’artiste.