Willem de Kooning | Zao Wou-Ki - Lévy Gorvy

Willem de Kooning | Zao Wou-KiExhibitions

New York
January 19 - March 11, 2017

Willem de Kooning | Zao Wou-Ki

Lévy Gorvy is pleased to present the first exhibition ever to pair the abstract landscapes of Chinese-French master Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013) and Dutch-born American titan Willem de Kooning (1904-1997). With the full support of the Willem de Kooning Foundation and the Fondation Zao Wou-Ki, this exhibition will inaugurate the new partnership of Dominique Lévy and Brett Gorvy, and will be the first presentation in their gallery’s expanded space at 909 Madison Avenue.

Although contemporaries, the two postwar masters of painting never met, and the exhibition at Lévy Gorvy marks the first time their work will be presented together. With a selection of over twenty paintings spanning from the late 1940s through the early 1980s, 'Willem de Kooning | Zao Wou-Ki' intends to bridge an East-West dialogue, placing the two artists in conversation by means of their work. De Kooning’s Sail Cloth and Zao’s Untitled, both created in 1949, open the exhibition and indelibly illuminate ways in which issues of surface, representation, depth, and coloration would similarly preoccupy both artists throughout their careers. Seminal large-scale canvases - including such key museum loans as Zao’s Montagne déchirée (1955 – 56) from the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and de Kooning’s Untitled (1962) from the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C. - will be on view. And side-by-side juxtapositions will reveal striking affinities between the two artists, suggesting heretofore unrecognized connections between the ways in which de Kooning and Zao addressed composition and motif to achieve breakthroughs that remain relevant to contemporary painting.

Lévy Gorvy will present a series of programs in conjunction with 'Willem de Kooning | Zao Wou-Ki.' The gallery has published a fully illustrated hardbound catalogue featuring essays by leading scholars, including Robert E. Harrist Jr., Jane and Leopold Swergold Professor of Chinese Art History at Columbia University; and Dominique de Villepin, former Prime Minister of France. In addition, the book will contain original poems by Cole Swenson and Diane Walt, as well as a chronology contextualizing the two painters in the rich goings-on in China, Paris, and America at the time, constructed by Melissa Walt.

'Willem de Kooning | Zao Wou-Ki' will travel to Hong Kong.

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Selected Works

  • Willem de Kooning

    Door to the River
    1960
    Oil on linen
    80 1/8 x 70 1/8 inches (203.5 x 178.1 cm)

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  • Zao Wou-Ki

    05-12-69
    1969
    Oil on canvas
    76 3/4 x 38 3/16 inches (195 x 97 cm)

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  • Willem de Kooning

    Untitled XVI
    1976
    Oil on canvas
    60 3/8 x 54 1/8 inches (153.4 x 137.5 cm)

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  • Zao Wou-Kiv

    La nuit remue (the night is stirring)
    1956
    Oil on canvas
    76 x 51 3/16 inches (193 x 130 cm)

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  • Willem de Kooning

    Sail Cloth
    1949
    Oil, enamel, charcoal, and graphite on board
    27 x 32 inches (68.6 x 81.2 cm)

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  • Zao Wou-Ki

    01-10-73
    1973
    Oil on canvas
    102 3/8 x 78 3/4 inches (260 x 200 cm)

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Video

The Meeting of Edgard Varèse and Charlie Paker

March 22, 2017

Special concert led by Peter Evans, in celebration of the exhibition 'Willem de Kooning | Zao Wou-Ki.'

Selected Press

Hamptons Art Hub | Readers Choice: Most Popular 15 Stories in 2017

December 27, 2017

On view through March 11, 2017, Willem de Kooning|Zao Wou-Ki featured more than 20 paintings from the …

Wall Street International | Zao Wou-Ki

February 13, 2017

Lévy Gorvy is pleased to present the first exhibition ever to pair the abstract landscapes of Chinese-French …

Hamptons Art Hub | ART REVIEW: De Kooning and Zao Wou-Ki Paintings Trace Paths to Abstraction

February 7, 2017

East meets West is an ancient theme in the arts: Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” and

Cultured | Second Act

February 1, 2017

It might not be known to those who aren’t involved in the art market, but some of the biggest collectors …

Artnet | Lévy Gorvy Demonstrates Art World Clout at Inaugural New York Exhibition

January 20, 2017

A little over a month after the formation of what is predicted to be one of the most formidable art dealer …

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