Sanyu: His Life and Works in Oil traces the life of the Chinese artist (1895-1966) from his early years in China and Japan, to his artistic experimentation and development in Paris and New York, ending in his tragic death, impoverished and forgotten. Today, however, Sanyu is one of the most coveted Chinese modern artists. An examination of his life reveals that it was precisely the polarities and tensions he experienced that spurred him to create a unique pictorial language that so dynamically integrated the spirit of Western modernity with centuries-old established Chinese traditions. Sanyu metamorphosed from a Chinese artist of the modern period to a modernist with Chinese cultural roots. These intersecting dynamics resulted in a hybridization previously unseen.
Featuring examples of his works of all genres and drawing on a wealth of archival material as well as personal stories recounted by people who knew Sanyu, this biography is the most comprehensive record of Sanyu's life to date.
In 1921, Sanyu was among many Chinese artists who left his homeland to travel abroad to learn foreign ways. In Paris he enrolled at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, where he delved into the world of sketching nudes from live models. Drawing on his training in Chinese calligraphy, his ink drawings are characterized by a unique curvilinear certainty and fluidity. He started to paint in oil in 1929, under the direction of author and art collector Henri-Pierre Roché. In contrast to his drawing, here he preferred to reference images or memories from his youth and his rich cultural heritage. After World War II. he traveled to New York, where he became roommates and close friends with the Swiss photographer Robert Frank, and became influenced by the New York School. While he did not embrace abstraction, he borrowed elements that are evident in a diversified color palette. Sanyu returned to Paris in 1950, where his life was characterized by hopeful but false starts and debilitating failures. This catalogue raisonné is the first publication that includes all of his known oil paintings to date.
Chronicling the life and works of an underappreciated Chinese painter who fused Western and Eastern art
Known as the «Chinese Matisse,» Chang Yu or Sanyu (1895-1966) was one of the first modern Chinese artists to study Western art in Paris. This first volume of the catalogue raisonné is dedicated to a biography of the artist's life. Editor Rita Wong walks readers through the stages of Sanyu's career: from his early life in Qing Dynasty China to his journey to France as part of a government work-study program, his nude drawings made at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, his experiments in printmaking, his time spent in New York with documentarian Robert Frank and even his brief promotion of a sport he invented called «ping-tennis.» These chapters are copiously illustrated with Sanyu's watercolor sketches, photographs, calligraphy, newspaper clippings and more archival material that fully immerses readers into the story of his life.
The definitive documentation of hundreds of oil-based works on various supports by the artist often dubbed the "Chinese Matisse"
Volume two of Sanyu: His Life and Complete Works in Oil comprises the catalogue raisonné of his 321 known works in oil on mirror, canvas, Masonite, board and paper. Sanyu's compositions are a thoughtful blend of Western art traditions he was exposed to in Paris and traditional formal qualities of Chinese art. His reclining nudes with elongated bodies are rendered in Fauvist-like swaths of color. Meanwhile, his still lifes of flowers in vases employ the rectangular format of calligraphy drawings while making use of brighter, contrasting hues. Other works include his playful compositions of animals, such as goldfish floating in a glass jar or horses frolicking against a black landscape. With recent sales of Sanyu's works numbering in the tens of millions, this catalogue raisonné, together with the biographical first volume, is a necessary guide for collectors, critics and art aficionados.
