Weitz publishes on Zao Wou-Ki

In September 2015, Professor Ankeney Weitz published “‘Infused with the Best Essence of China’– Zao Wou-ki’s Early Career” in Orientations Magazine. This article investigates a poorly understood part of this important artist’s oeuvre: the paintings he did in China prior to emigrating to France in 1948. It argues that Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013) began his creative synthesis European modern art with Chinese idioms well before his arrival in France. Where many critics have seen his migration from China to France as a complete break with his past, a close consideration of the work shows more continuity than disjuncture.

A related exhibition, “No Limits: The Art of Zao Wou-Ki,” co-curated by Professor Weitz and Melissa Walt (Faculty Fellow), will be on view at the Colby College Museum of Art February 4 – June 4, 2017. The show will be on view at the Asia Society Museum in New York City September 9, 2016 – January 9, 2017.