Zao (Zhao) Wou Ki combines Oriental landscape abstraction with French influence. He was born in Beijing on February 13, 1921, and from the age of ten, Zao drew and painted with great freedom. He learned from his grandfather that calligraphy is an art when it transmits an emotion to the person looking at it. At age fourteen he enrolled at the School of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, where he remained for six years. He studied and then taught at the Hongchow National Academy of Fine Arts. In 1942, he organized an exhibition of works by his teacher, Wu Dayu, along with some of his own.

In 1948, he moved to Paris where he has lived and worked ever since, although he has exhibited in New York City. He attended the Académie de la Grand...