Chinese artist Zao Wou-Ki dead at 93

Celebrated Chinese artist Zao Wou-Ki has died at the age of 93. He passed away at his home in Switzerland on Tuesday (09Apr13) according to his widow’s lawyer Marc Bonnant. The artist suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and had been hospitalised twice since March (13).
Born in Beijing, China, Zao moved to Paris, France in 1948 before the Communist takeover of his country, and became a French citizen in 1964.
As a painter, he was inspired by abstract artists including Paul Klee, Alberto Giacometti and Joan Miro and held his first solo exhibition in New York in 1959. By the 1960s, his art became more abstract and his reputation grew, with exhibitions in many Western capitals and Beijing.
Renowned for his combination of Chinese and European influences, his painting titled 25.06.86 sold in a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong last year (12) for $3.3 million (£2.1 million), a world record for the artist.