In Zao's paintings from the period 1948–1953, residual forms can still be seen of the influence of the artistic training that Zao received in China. A visit to an exhibition of works by Paul Klee in Switzerland in 1951 was a revelation to him. Klee, who was fascinated by Asian art, displayed a freedom and lightness of touch in his paintings that made even the smallest canvas seem to embody vast, boundless spaces. Following Klee's example, Zao Wou–ki began to explore the utilization of two–dimensional symbols to represent color, and the use of poetic association. Benefiting from the inspiration that Klee's work had given him, and from his own travels around Europe to view famous buildings and murals, Zao began to move slowly towards his own emotive "universe of the self."
The crucial year for Zao's switch to abstract painting was 1954, when he moved from the narrative, material and specific to the existential, non–representational and universal, from concrete objects to symbolic meanings in the highly personal form of abstract painting. This is the period in which one starts to see paintings that could clearly be by no–one other than Zao Wou–ki! 
“Hieroglyphs” a work from 1954, is one of Zao’s earliest examples of abstract painting. In the motley black space, in which a consonance is found between the depth and the surface, ancient, mysterious characters and symbols are etched, while lightly colored lines quiver into the shape of musical notes, which come together to compose a poem. In this small space between heaven and earth where the artist’s composition exists, the artist’s concept takes flight, unrestrained and bringing with it the enticing allure of the East.