Zao Wou-ki, Chinese-born French artist is born in Peking on February 1st, 1920 and died April 9, 2013.

He used Western Modernist aesthetics and traditional East Asian techniques to create dynamic paintings that embodied what some observers referred to as “lyrical abstraction.”

Zao studied (1935–41) calligraphy and traditional Chinese landscape paintingat the Fine Arts School of Hangzhou, where he remained as an assistant professor. He developed a keen admiration of Post-Impressionism and of such European artists as Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso, however, and moved to Paris in 1948 shortly before the communist takeover of China.

In the early 1950s he began emulating the art of Paul Klee, but within a few years Zao had developed his own lyrical style of abstract art, which was perhaps most evident in his bold large-scale paintings. Although Zao held his first solo show in Paris in 1949, he was not fully appreciated in China until the early 1980s; an exhibition of his work was finally mounted in 1983 at the National Museum of Beijing under the auspices of the Chinese minister of culture.

In later years Zao’s paintings were highly prized by art collectors in Hong Kong and throughout China. Zao became a citizen of France in 1964, and his contribution to the arts in his adopted homeland brought him formal honours as an officer (1984), commander (1993), and grand officer (2006) of the Legion of Honour.

赵无极，出生于中国的法国艺术家于1920年2月1日出生于北京，于2013年4月9日去世。 他利用西方现代主义美学和传统的东亚技术创作出动态绘画，体现了一些观察家所称的“抒情抽象”。 赵无极在杭州美术学院学习（1935-41）书法和中国传统山水画，并在那里担任助理教授。然而，他对后印象主义以及塞尚，马蒂斯和毕加索等欧洲艺术家表示了极大的钦佩，并于1948年在共产党接管中国之前不久移居巴黎。 在20世纪50年代早期，他开始模仿Paul Klee的艺术，但在几年之内，Zao开发了他自己的抒情风格的抽象艺术，这可能在他大胆的大型绘画中最为明显。虽然赵无极于1949年在巴黎举办了他的首次个展，但直到20世纪80年代初，他才在中国得到充分的赏识。 1983年，在中国文化部长的主持下，他的作品展览终于在北京国家博物馆举行。 在晚年，赵无极的画作受到香港和中国各地艺术收藏家的高度重视。 Zao于1964年成为法国公民，他在自己的家园中对艺术的贡献使他获得了正式荣誉（1984年），指挥官（1993年）和荣誉军团（2006年）。

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