Zao Wou-Ki (Zhao Wuji)

signed in pinyin and Chinese (lower right); signed in pinyin and titled (reverse)
Executed circa 1950s

Cadby Birch Gallery, New York
Private American Collection

There is a slight slackening to the canvas. Apart from some restoration at the upper left, upper right and in the yellow pigment, only visible under UV light, this work is in satisfactory condition.
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Zao Wou-ki first set foot on French shores on April 1st, 1948.  Overcoming his fear of the sea, he travelled under the French flag aboard an old ship named the André Lebon.  Travelling by boat for thirty-six days, he finally arrived in Marseille. On his days aboard the ship, he often stood on the deck watching the sea, the flying fish and the surrounding scenery.  It was perhaps these memories that often inspired him in the early 1950s to turn to boats as his subject matter, depicting sailing boats casting their nets in an azure sea or sailing side-by-side in dark green waterways in a monochromatic and sketchy style of painting.  However, in Deux Bateaux se Croisent, he uses an abundance of colour with two brown boats sailing next to each other in a blue sea, red flags fluttering at the bow and stern of the lower boat. The boats are symbolic of a traveler's long journey across the sea and are possibly representative of Zao's first journey away from home with his wife, Xie Jinglan, to France, to them an unknown and faraway place. Although the boats seem somewhat unstable, the boats and the sea are circled by a golden light as if surrounding them with luck and hope for the future.  Emphasizing the mysterious tension of this work, in the painting Zao once again combines reality and fantasy, producing a vision of the artist's distant memories.