Chinese-French artist Zao Wou-Ki featured in upcoming Shanghai exhibition

Chinese-French artist Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013) will be featured at the upcoming exhibition of the Jiushi Art Museum in Shanghai from June 29 to Oct 13.

Echoes of Verses: The Poetic Palimpsests of Zao Wou-Ki will present more than 80 prints the artist created from the 1950s to the early 2000s in collaboration with poets such as Henri Michaux, Rene Char and Claude Roy, as well as those inspired by ancient Chinese poets such as Qu Yuan, Du Fu and Li Bai.

Zao used to say, "If I had not become a painter, I would have been a poet." Inspired by this statement, the curator of the exhibition Ma Nan decided to explore the poetry in Zao's creation.

The exhibition will particularly focus on the imagery and metaphors in Zao's prints, highlighting the unique charm of his poetic creations and exploring the intricate intertextual relationship between the visual arts and literary poetry.

One of the most celebrated artists from China in the modern art world, Zao was born into a family with deep cultural traditions and moved to Shanghai with his parents when he was a baby. He then became a lecturer at the Hangzhou National Academy of Arts and moved to Paris in 1948, where he embarked on a career path overlapping Chinese and Western artistic traditions, and developed a signature style of lyrical abstraction.