Before the Storm
- Artist: Zao Wou-ki
- Date: 1955
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 724 x 537 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Before the Storm” by Zao Wou‑ki. Painted in 1955, it’s a tall, oil‑on‑canvas that feels like a murky sky in motion. The surface is dominated by dark, earthy tones—black, white, and muted browns—applied in thick, gestural strokes at the four corners. In the centre a large, cloud‑like mass leans downward, almost spilling across the canvas, with two bright dots that look like lightning or punctuation marks. The overall gesture hints at a storm about to break, but there’s no literal landscape—just abstraction that carries the weight of emotion.
The piece belongs to Zao’s “Oracle Bone” series, where he blends ancient Chinese characters with contemporary abstraction. Zao, a Chinese artist who moved to Paris in 1948, absorbed the energy of European modernists while keeping a thread of Eastern calligraphy. In “Before the Storm” that thread shows as thin, black linework that echoes old script, even as the composition feels fresh and spontaneous. It’s a striking example of how Eastern and Western traditions can collide in a single, expressive canvas.
See it in person
Before the Storm is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
