When Zao Wou-ki held his first solo exhibition in Paris, art critics have already consider him as a genius painter, later, Zao established his own style and consolidated his position in the international art circle. He is also the senior abstract painter in China. French art critic Marchesseau described Zao's paintings as "the fusion of two unique worlds", Zao as "a Chinese in Paris, a Chinese in China", and praised his blending the essences from both Chinese and western traditions and his breakthrough. Zao made use of painting mediums proficiently, he enlarged his view to the whole universe, arranged the elements with rich imaginations and his talents proficiently, successfully created soulful pieces of works. He used fierce brush strokes and the splash ink techniques to paint the western abstract paintings, his sparks splashed in the art world are as bright as a star, lightened up the eastern and western night skies. Zao Wou-ki loves art with his life, he once said that paintings are "suite sans fin", therefore he will not stop, he will paint until his life ends.

When Zao Wou-ki was working on his autobiography during the 80's, he wrote: "Maintenant je ne cherche rien d'autre qu'? faire un tableau, sous l'emprise du moment et la couleur, ou representer a la fois tout et rien, avec ?eonomie, parcimonie meme." These sentences have reflected the artists' inner self, paintings have never slipped away from his life, but through the years he had a different point of view. Has been painting for over 50 years, he said that it was inspired by a painting called "La Fenetre" by Matisse; it was one of the most important piece of work of the 20th century. He said: "J'ai essaye d'y meler la terre et le ciel, inspire par l'ouverture suggeree ou j'ai voulu m'engouffrer. C'est un chemin vers l'infini par le seul recours a la couleur." Following the need of colors, following the inspiration at that moment, unlike his impassioned and broad paintings from the past, Zao's paintings have become clever and chastening in the 80's.

Art critic Franis Jacob has properly commented on Zao's paintings during 1980 to 1985: "Un regard encore ouvert a tous les possibles. Un etat qui precede le monde. Une route qui conduit, non a l'achevement, mais a l'origine, aux confines de ce quin'est pas encore. C'est la que nous entraine la peinture de Zao Wou-ki, vers un espace qui n'est pas encore determin,mais reste en suspens, hesite, plane un dernier instant avant de basculer dans ce qui, plus tard, deviendra un ordre.... Il y a dans la peinture de Zao Wou-ki, une perpetelle mise en question du monde. Un acharnement a le re-creer. Certaines de ses toiles evoquent la fureur des origins, l'enfantement de la mati e par l'energie, les derniers soubresauts des explosions creatrices. D'autres deploient l'indocilite moqueuse des n uleuses. Ou l'invention de l'eau. Ou le premier matin, comme ce merveilleux petit triptyque aux blancs roses. Et en filigrane, par-dela les convulsions de la matiere, comme prete a sourdre, la vie." (Zao Wou-ki & Franise Marquet, Autoportrait, Fayard, Paris, 1986, pp. 186-187)

27.8.84" is one of Zao's representitive work from the 80's, it has the precise color struture, it's as blue as the ocean or a quite night sky, full of mysterious imaginations, the light came from the center of the picture, it's so soft and tender. After he made use of the Chinese traditional landscape paintings in the 70's, the works onwards changed significantly. Art critic Janothan Hay once said: Zao wou-ki's paintings have attened a state of grace in the 80's, he put down all his rush during that peroid, and this made him to create yet more strong bone-structure paintings. Lights slowly came from the soft bottom of the picture, and diffused, surrounded the darkness, some kind of symbol hidden inside the paintings opened up the silence and still.

Zao's paintings from the 80's are tend to be hollow and spiritual, it's actually very difficult to paint a painting this way. The artist once said: "it's easy to fill the canvas, hard to empty it." He always wanted to paint hollow paintings. He wanted to learn to paint without inks on the paper, just like the traditional Chinese paintings, to leave some space on the canvas. However, the emptiness in oil paintings had to be constructed slowly, it's much harder to achieve if the canvas is larger, it's like a living room, and you must live within, you must experiece it. Hollowness and reality are different layers in life, and they must be connected. They are also the most important thing inside an abstract painting, and it's what Zao concerned all the time. "27.8.84" looks like a picture of ocean deep, consealed with endless mysteries, and the white light gradually penetrates it, Zao brilliantly made use of those magical colors to deliver the prospect of hollowness, and successfully created a masterpiece.