Untitled Possibly 1962

Zao Wou-Ki made this untitled artwork using gestural marks and a primarily blue palette, with flicks of black and white that cut through the surface, disrupting the tonal ground. I'm imagining Zao Wou-Ki in the process of making this, responding to the painting as it’s coming into being through trial and error. The painting suggests a scene, maybe of water, a rain storm or cascading waterfall, but it's held open by the material properties of paint. How the paint sits on the surface, thin in some areas and thicker in others, constructs the feeling and intellectual capacity of the piece. Those dominant marks communicate a feeling that I have felt before, that everything is shifting and moving and emerging. Artists are in an ongoing conversation with each other, I see the influence of painters like Joan Mitchell here. It's reassuring in a way to know that artists are inspired by each other, and that ambiguity and uncertainty is the only guarantee.