When the 75-year-old George Chann held his solo exhibition, which proved to be his last, at a Los Angeles gallery in 1988, the local newspaper called him "a forgotten artist."
Indeed, Chann, the proprietor of Farmer's Market Art Gallery, who toiled a full eight hours every day at the easel in the back room of his shop for 40 years, hardly sold any work during his lifetime.
It was only after the Chinese ex-pat died in 1995 that his paintings slowly gained appreciation in the academic field and on the art market both here and abroad.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CITY GALLERY
After Chann's first posthumous exhibition, in Taipei in 2000, the life of the recluse began to unfold and his name started getting mentioned alongside those 20th century Chinese artists who were recognized much earlier, such as Sanyu (
In Chann's current exhibition, simply titled, "George Chann, Solo Exhibition" (
These Chinese calligraphy-incorporated abstract expressionist paintings are what Chann is most remembered for.
Chann started working in an abstract expressionist vein in the 1950s, when the school had become the mainstream of American modern art.
Although Chann once admitted in an interview to his admiration for abstract expressionist pioneers such as Mark Tobey and Jackson Pollock, he also realized that he had to explore different subjects and material if he was to develop his own style.
Chann did not have to look that far for inspiration, since his own art gallery -- not simply a display room for his own works, but a jewelry and Chinese artifacts shop -- had ample supply of calligraphy prints and rubbings taken from oracle bones, bronze vessels and steles.
According to art critic Wang Chia-chi's (
In many works, Chann made collages using these rearranged scripts on canvas. It was on these collages that the painter applied oil colors or, in some cases, wrote more calligraphy.
As if to create historical relics, Chann integrated fine sands on the painted surface to subtly imitate the time-worn veneer of artifacts.
These procedures resulted in some enchanting aspects to Chann's works.
While viewing an entire painting is enchanting, a closer look at the delicate traces of paint and the half-hidden elusive scripts, is as delightful as perusing a finely incised and naturally corroded Shang vessel. And in fact, the kind of azurite often found in the patina of Shang bronze is often an underlying color in Chann's paintings.
At the age of 12, Chann emigrated with his father from China's Guangdong province to California and was enrolled at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angles eight years later in 1934.
With a solid training in Impressionist techniques, Chann was an enthusiastic painter of the poverty of the blacks, Chinese and Mexicans, especially of the aged and orphaned among them.
Before Chann set up his art shop, he had good connections with several Los Angles dealers, and these works of social realism were frequently exhibited in his early years.
A less well-known line of painting Chann worked on involved scenes from the Bible. A Christian all his life, he donated 250 works to the Crystal Cathedral, near Los Angles, where they are now on permanent display.
George Chann Solo Exhibition runs until May 28 at Lin and Keng Gellery, No. 11, Lane 252, Tunhua S Rd., Sec 1 (
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
By far the most jarring of the new appointments for the incoming administration is that of Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) to head the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). That is a huge demotion for one of the most powerful figures in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Tseng has one of the most impressive resumes in the party. He was very active during the Wild Lily Movement and his generation is now the one taking power. He has served in many of the requisite government, party and elected positions to build out a solid political profile. Elected as mayor of Taoyuan as part of the
Moritz Mieg, 22, lay face down in the rubble, the ground shaking violently beneath him. Boulders crashed down around him, some stones hitting his back. “I just hoped that it would be one big hit and over, because I did not want to be hit nearly to death and then have to slowly die,” the student from Germany tells Taipei Times. MORNING WALK Early on April 3, Mieg set out on a scenic hike through Taroko Gorge in Hualien County (花蓮). It was a fine day for it. Little did he know that the complex intersection of tectonic plates Taiwan sits
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50