Unlike many of his contemporaries, Zao Wou-ki, the renowned Beijing-born abstract artist, achieved considerable success while he was still around to enjoy it. Since his death in 2013, however, his stock has risen still further, a fact that was underlined when one of his paintings – Juin-Octobre 1985 – sold for US$65 million in September 2018, making it the most expensive artwork ever auctioned in Hong Kong.
Since then, other Zao Wou-ki artworks have gone on to command equally impressive valuation, most notably his Triptyque 1987-1988, which went for an eminently respectable US$22.8 million at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong earlier this year. It is one of seven monumentally-sized triptychs the artist produced between 1980 and 1990 – and only the second ever to come up for auction. Comprising three 200cm x 162cm panels, this particular triptych is seen as representing something of a transition point between the dark tones that defined his work throughout the ’60s and the brightness that crept into his later pieces.
Speaking of his love of working on outsized canvases, Zao Wou-ki once said: “The large surfaces inspired me to battle with space. I had to fill this surface, bring it to life, give myself to it.” Now it seems safe to say that the value put on his works is nearly as great as his initial artistic vision.