Hong Kong — Christie’s proudly announces Zao Wou-ki’s 29.09.64. (estimate: HK$220,000,000 – 280,000,000/ US$29,000,000 – 36,000,000), the largest and the most important canvas of the artist’s “Hurricane Period” in the 1960s still in private hands today, which will lead the 20th and 21st Century Art Evening Sale on 26 May, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Created in the 1960s — a decade which is widely recognised as a new phase of Zao Wou-Ki’s artistic oeuvre and an intense period of his life on both an artistic and personal level — 29.09.64. is a seminal work which marries the artist’s profound knowledge of Chinese classical literati painting, represented by the intricate networks of truncated black and white brushstrokes at the centre of the composition, with abstract explorations through a predominantly blue colouration that resembles a tumultuous seascape where water and sky unify as one. The painting was created after Zao moved to a more spacious studio on Rue Jonquoy in the Montparnasse district of Paris, allowing him to first experiment with larger canvases. The artist extended his compositions into larger formats, bringing him at once a bigger freedom of movement and a strong underlying tension as he confronted himself with the canvas. With its important dimensions and the vehement composition distinctive of the 1960s, 29.09.64. shows a monumentality in which the viewer is immediately caught.

29.09.64. – A masterpiece that launches a new era of Zao Wou-Ki’s artistic oeuvre in the 1960s:

The pinnacle of Zao’s “Hurricane Period” in 1964: The 1960s is universally recognised as a new phase of Zao’s artistic achievement, which brilliantly translates in 29.09.64. Zao integrated his Chinese classical cursive writing approach into landscape and calligraphy, marrying these elements with Western abstract artistic explorations. 29.09.64. forges a new path for Asian Modern art, and is praised as a monumental milestone in art history.

Exceptional provenance: Mr. M, the previous owner's father who originally purchased the work directly from the artist, was a successful French architect and engineer who saw flourishing professional activity during France’s most opulent post-war years, commonly referred to as “The Glorious Thirty” spanning from 1945 to 1975. A period of intense modernisation and industrialisation brought the architect to conceive hospitals, various scientific research centres, and administration buildings throughout France and also in Algeria, still a French colony at the time. Technological progress and scientific discoveries, in which Mr M. played a crucial role, strongly influenced the development of a new modernist aesthetic in architecture, art, and design.

Notes To Editors 

Auction:
Hong Kong | 26 May | Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, No. 1 Harbour Road, Hong Kong