​In 1926, Henri Michaux attended the Paul Klee exhibition at the Galerie Pierre and rediscovered his love for painting. In 1938, he exhibited his small paintings on black backgrounds at the same gallery. In 1947, Michaux was introduced to Zao Wou-Ki’s lithographs and invited Pierre Loeb to discover the young Chinese artist’s work. Loeb purchased 11 of his canvases and signed a contract binding them until 1957. This space, steeped in history, art, and friendship, is now home to the Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, which has long maintained a special relationship with Zao Wou-Ki and the work of Michaux—two artists regularly exhibited at the gallery.

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This year, to celebrate the gallery’s 40th anniversary—and bringing history full circle—mother and daughter are organizing an exhibition bringing together the two artists: Henri Michaux, the painter-poet born in Wallonia in 1899, and Zao Wou-Ki, the Chinese painter and printmaker and a leading figure of the lyrical abstraction movement. Upon arriving in France in 1948 and immediately setting to work, Zao Wou-Ki created his first lithographs. Instantly captivated, Michaux composed a series of texts based on eight of Zao Wou-Ki’s lithographs. This marked the beginning of a beautiful friendship that would bind the two men until Michaux’s death in 1984.

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Today, the Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès pays tribute to these two great artists with the exhibition Zao Wou-Ki – Henri Michaux: China – Occident, which spans the period of their meeting in 1948 and the major phase of Chinese ink paintings in the 1970s. In 1970, Zao Wou-Ki’s wife and father had died. China was under the yoke of the Cultural Revolution. Wou-Ki was devastated. He had lost his inspiration. Michaux convinced him to return to Chinese ink painting... The exhibition, consisting primarily of Chinese ink paintings and watercolors, is structured around a dialogue between these two great artists, Zao Wou-Ki and Henri Michaux.