Landscape

Born in Beijing, Zao Wou-ki developed a strong interest in European modernist art after being exposed to postcard reproductions from Paris. Aspiring to find his own artistic voice, Zao studied first at the National School of Fine Art in Hangzhou, where he was encouraged by his teachers to challenge the academic traditions of his time. He moved to Paris in 1948 to continue his study of painting, later becoming a French citizen.

The playful and simplified pictorial symbols in Landscape show traces of influence from Paul Klee (1879–1940). However, the work evokes traditional Chinese landscape paintings in its parallel composition and flattened perspective, as well as the bucolic motifs—a cowherd boy leisurely playing a flute, a thatched cottage located at the foot of the mountains—that Zao had borrowed from ancient Han dynasty motifs.