Willem de Kooning / Zao Wou-Ki

This volume explores the parallel careers of two celebrated postwar Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) and Zao Wou-Ki (1921–2013). Published in conjunction with Dominique Lévy’s exhibition pairing the artists' abstract landscapes, this wide-ranging catalog demonstrates that, although the two never met, de Kooning and Zao shared a model of color, composition and motif that remains relevant in the world of contemporary painting. With texts in English, Chinese and French, Willem de Kooning / Zao Wou-Ki charts an East-West dialogue in the immediate aftermath of World War II, tracing the thread of nonfigurative abstraction in Chinese, European and American modernism. With rich archival material, never-before-published photographs and newly commissioned essays, Willem de Kooning / Zao Wou-Ki offers an innovative transnational reading of postwar painting.