‘Zao Wou-Ki: Master Printmaker’ at M+
Hong Kong
02 April 2026
At M+—a major museum in Hong Kong dedicated to visual culture spanning contemporary art, design, architecture, and moving image—a major exhibition is dedicated to the Chinese-French artist Zao Wou-Ki (1920–2013), offering a focused exploration of his work as a printmaker. On view from 13 December 2025 to 03 May 2026, 'Zao Wou-Ki: Master Printmaker' brings renewed attention to an essential yet sometimes overlooked aspect of the artist’s practice, tracing his sustained engagement with printmaking over several decades.
Widely celebrated for his lyrical abstraction in painting, Zao’s printmaking reveals a parallel and equally rigorous investigation into form, gesture, and material. The exhibition foregrounds how the artist embraced a range of techniques—including lithography, etching, and aquatint—to expand his visual language. These works reflect the same poetic sensibility that defines his paintings, while also demonstrating a distinct sensitivity to texture, depth, and the interplay of light and shadow unique to print.
Produced largely in collaboration with master printers in Paris, Zao’s prints testify to a fertile dialogue between artist and artisan. This exchange allowed him to push the expressive possibilities of each medium, resulting in compositions that balance spontaneity with technical precision. Across the works on view, visitors encounter a visual vocabulary that merges Eastern and Western influences—echoing calligraphic gestures alongside the gestural abstraction associated with post-war European art.
'Zao Wou-Ki: Master Printmaker' situates Zao’s printmaking within the broader arc of his career, highlighting its importance not as a secondary practice but as a vital extension of his artistic thinking. Through carefully selected works, it becomes clear that printmaking offered the artist a space for experimentation, where he could explore new rhythms, scales, and formal relationships. Accompanying the exhibition, public programmes further illuminate Zao’s connection to Hong Kong and his enduring international legacy.
