CHINESE PAINITNG ACTIVITY IN NEW YORK Throughout the 20th century, New York was an active center for the enjoyment, study, and collecting of Chinese traditional paintings. The city and its environs are the home to the renowned collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the academic programs at Columbia, New York, Princeton, and Yale Universities; venerable cultural institutions as China Institute in America; important private collecions; numerous Chinese artists; and auction houses and fine galleries. Many of the figures who played a prominent role in the Chinese paintings field in New York arrived here as an accident of history. On one hand many fled the political and social upheavals that devastated China in the 20th century, while others were agents of the soft politics of cultural outreach. Many who arrived brought with them their heritage, erudition, and in some cases, family collections. Individuals such as Lin Yutang (1895-1976) and Wang Fangyu (1913-1997) focused on education. While Lin taught English in China, in the United States he taught Chinese and even invented a Chinese typewriter. Both Lin and Wang authored Chinese-English dictionaries. In addition to language and literature courses, Wang Fangyu also formally and privately taught many the traditional methods of paintings connoisseurship. C.C. Wang (1907-2003), Wang Qiyuan (1893-1975), and Wang Yachen (1894-1983) were active artists and art teachers. All learned traditional Chinese painting techniques as youths in China but explored new ideas and styles in their new home. While all spent some time studying Western art methods and employed them to varying degrees, each maintained an emphasis on the development of the Chinese paintings tradition. The interest in Chinese art inspired some to open galleries to provide traditional arts to Chinese and Western collectors. One of the most notable among the immigrant-dealers was C.T. Loo (Loo Ching-Tsai, 1880-1957). A native of Shanghai who settled in Paris, C.T. Loo maintained a gallery on Madison Avenue between 1910 and the early 1950s. Able to access paintings of impressive quality, he played a significant role in the development of numerous museum and private collections in the U.S. Interest in Chinese culture extended beyong the Chinese-American community. A few notable examples of popular interest include the great success of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth in 1931 and the best-seller status of Lin Yutang's philosophical The Importance of Living in 1937. In 1948 the Metropolitan Museum displayed Chinese Contemporary Paintings, the first comprehensive exhibition of Chinese current paintings in the U.S. This ground-breaking show introduced American museum-goers to the work of numerous artists, such as Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), his brother Zhang Shanzi (1882-1940), Zhang Shuqi (1889-1956), and Wang Yachen, among many others. PROPERTY FROM A NEW YORK PRIVATE COLLECTION

HE WEIPU (1844-1925)

LANDSCAPE

Details

HE WEIPU (1844-1925)
LANDSCAPE
Hanging scroll, ink on paper
Inscribed and signed by the artist, with two seals
Two collectors' seals
Dated spring dingsi year (1917)
50½ x 22¾ in. (58 x 128 cm.)

Provenance

Acquired in New York in the 1950s.

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Lot Essay

These paintings were acquired in the 1950s in New York by a physician who had immigrated to the United States from China several years earlier and brought with him his keen interest in Chinese traditional arts.

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