Jonathan Hay, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Professor of Fine Arts at New York University, wrote an article for the catalog for an exhibition of works by Zao Wou-ki that was held in New York in 2003, in which he commented on the change in Zao's oil painting style in his later work: "In the course of 1979 Zao abandoned his older approach altogether and devoted himself entirely to the new stylistic direction that he had traced out for himself in a few key paintings of the 1970s. Out of this shift came a decade of work that attains a state of grace: a quality of gesture that is stripped of all hurriedness and creates a more powerful "bone-structure" (to use a term from Chinese calligraphy and painting), a luminosity extending from infinite softness to enveloping darkness, a topography of form that opens itself to stillness and silence." (Jonathan Hay, 'Recent Works by Zao Wou-ki', 2003)

Since 1959, therefore, Zao Wou-ki had rarely named his works, but instead titled them with the date of their completion or just "untitled". For him, this is not only because words appear colorless and powerless for the eyes, but also because explicit verbal signifiers tend to ascribe excessive associations to real objects. Zao's experiment with ink paintings in the 1970s inspired greater richness in his late-period works. He found in "ink" infinite changes in color as well as immense freedom in space. While others confined themselves to one single tradition, Zao straddled two, placid and poised, liberating his feelings onto the canvas.Zao Wou-ki's paintings from the 1980s and 1990s embody a high degree of spirituality. The technique is effortless and mature. The intense, almost manic lines of some of Zao's earlier work are no longer to be seen; instead, there is spatial arrangement of great depth and meaning, with lighter, brighter and more lustrous color tones. The overall effect is intensely emotive and expressive-an exploration of the soul's wanderings in the cosmos. The stronger color tones that appear here and there in the paintings seem like a memory of the artist's youth.

The lot "15.7.93" was created in 1993 and is a treasure of the artist, with its elegant and graceful colors, and free-flowing brushwork, containing boundless imaginative space. Even though he was nearing the twilight of his life, Zao Wou-ki's paintings seemed even younger. He always brimmed with creative passion, once saying that painting for him was "without a pure end," with no other way but to continually explore. His spirit is truly admirable.