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Lot Essay
George Chann, who lived and worked on America's west coast, personally witnessed and played a great part in the development of abstract art from the early 1950s to the 1970s. Chann mastered both Eastern and Western art forms, employing the Western media of oil paint and collage to deconstruct and then present anew the essence of China's traditional calligraphy, ancient artifacts, and landscape painting, resulting in his striking contributions to the exchange of artistic vocabularies between East and West. His unique style was a beacon for those American artists who drew inspiration from Eastern calligraphy, such as Mark Toby, Franz Kline, and Lee Krasner. The artistic success Chann achieved paralleled that of Zao Wou Ki and Chu Teh-Chun, two other Chinese artists who began exploring abstraction in Europe in the mid and late 1950s. Through their work, they each expressed with keen intuition the artistic pulse of their time by drawing from traditional aesthetics to derive fresh new interpretations thus making each of these important overseas Chinese artists indispensable contributors to the development of 20th century abstract art.
Christie's Hong Kong is honored to present, in our 2014 Spring Sale, a selection of rare and valuable paintings by George Chann. Spanning the period from the 1940s to the 1990s, these works faithfully represent the artist's inextinguishable creative fervor and unceasing stylistic innovation. As a group, they provide collectors with a complete overview of the fascinating evolution of this artist's work.
Chann's early painting style took shape at the beginning of the 1940s with the use of Post-Impressionist techniques to portray social realist subjects. Chann's Moulin Rouge No. 4-Dancing Ladies (Lot 203) offers a glimpse into the way in which his painting style was steeped in the social realist spirit that was prevalent during this period. While Chann fearlessly directs the viewer's gaze toward the often overlooked misfortunes of those in the lower strata of society, his motivation derives from a profound humanistic concern for the disadvantaged. The artist returned to his native China between 1947 and 1949, where he practiced and exchanged ideas regarding ink painting and calligraphy with artist-calligrapher friends Huang Junbi and Zhao Shao'ang. It was this period in particular that solidified Chann's deep-rooted love for Chinese culture.
In the 1950s, just at the point when Abstract Expressionism was coming into vogue in art circles in the United States, Chann returned from China and was giving serious thought to the direction of his next artistic transformation. He felt the urge to return once again the source of the culture and aesthetics of his home country. Vertical Mountains (Lot 198) and Abstract Calligraphy on a Green Field (Lot 201) display two concurrent experiments that helped to define his creative direction. Though both works were created during the 1960s, through one viewers can witness his mastery of traditional landscape and calligraphy, and through the other, Chann's remarkably bold experimentation with different mediums to transform the traditional landscape composition onto canvas. In Vertical Mountains the artist utilizes Western modernist structure and color on the paper's surface. Through using traditional media, infused with his mastery of modern painting theory, he renders the distant Chinese landscape of his imagination.
Creating a sharp juxtaposition is Chann's Abstract Calligraphy on a Green Field, a work nearly two meters in height which dates to about 1965, around when he had just moved into a new home with a larger studio area allowing him more creative space. Working here on a Western canvas, the artist produces a lyrical and joyous outpouring that transcends any specific physical imagery. Chann's brushstrokes are concentrated and concise, but flowing, as he perfectly combines the elements of classical painting and calligraphy with newly emerging types of mixed media. A classic masterpiece of George Chann's work from the 1960s, Abstract Calligraphy on a Green Field was included in the joint exhibition "Round the Clock: Chinese-American Artists" at the Vincent Price Art Museum in Los Angeles in 2012.
During the 1970s, Chann continued to work simultaneously with both Chinese landscape and abstract painting. Moonrise Landscape (Lot 202), portrays in watercolor and graphite a dark night in a lonely moonlit valley; Chann's works on paper like this one only rarely make appearances on the market. In the development of his abstract painting during this period, Chann very much followed his own inclinations. In Calligraphy with Slate Grey Frame (Lot 207), in Orange and White (Tablet and Chop) (Lot 209), and in other works from the same time, the artist found inspiration in ancient vessels and utensils, using stone stele inscriptions or rubbings taken from ancient implements as a basis for his work. Chann would then cut and tear these rubbings into discontinuous fragments for use in collages on the canvas, after which he combined media, often ink, oil, and pastel, to add further calligraphic brushwork on top. By building these rich, complex, and detailed visual layers, Chann's works evoke the sense of remnants of a deeply buried history.
Chann's use of a highly diverse selection of media and color extends into his work from the 1980s. His 1984 Blue Collage (Lot 200) is an outstanding work representative of this period with its brilliant colors applied with a variety of calligraphic forms that flow and rush across the canvas. At the same time, Chann builds up layered textures in his oils that once again evoke a sense of historical remnants and passing time left in the traces of their weathered, mottled surfaces. Chann's colors are bold and bright, and in the layers he builds up we can see bits of notebooks, T-shirts, or even balloons, which create geometrical blocks of color; the effect he creates also form an interesting contrast with the primary colors and blocked-out geometrical forms often seen in the works of Barnett Newman. In addition, it is important to note that during this period Chann also began a series of city scenes in primarily blue palettes. In Hong Kong Harbour(Lot 204), form vaguely enters into and recedes from visual awareness; the artist expresses only the essence of images in the dazzling contrasts of these warm and cool tones and in the lines that imbue the work with energy. Chann captures the glow of neon lights and the lively, bustling scene of the harbor-side city.
In L.A. on Fire - Rodney King (Lot 199), a work from the artist's later years, the artist responds to the incidents surrounding the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Chann's high-intensity, saturated colors and his rich layering and variations of texture project the sense of tension and conflict between police and citizens during that time. The canvas is imbued with a fierce and fiery living energy that burns throughout-as Chann's last important work before departing this world, it is not only deeply moving and but also possesses a rare and precious historical value.
Taken as a whole, George Chann's creative life rested upon the beauty found in the graceful expressions of Chinese calligraphy and the artifacts of China's ancient culture. Through a seemingly random filtering and re-arrangement of elements, the deconstructed words and motifs in his paintings take on new meaning and exude the pure beauty and power of calligraphic art. Chann constructed a highly individual painting style with abstract forms and modes of thought in a distinctly Chinese vein. Through recognition and appreciation at the many solo and joint exhibitions at museums too numerous to name, some at which his works remain in the permanent collection, George Chann has earned his place as a quintessential Chinese-American artist. His ability to move subtly between the poles of representational and abstract art derives from a lifetime of artistic exploration. Moreover, the source of the profound impact his works have to move us lies precisely in the unshakeable emotional conviction he felt toward life, tradition, and home.
Christie's Hong Kong is honored to present, in our 2014 Spring Sale, a selection of rare and valuable paintings by George Chann. Spanning the period from the 1940s to the 1990s, these works faithfully represent the artist's inextinguishable creative fervor and unceasing stylistic innovation. As a group, they provide collectors with a complete overview of the fascinating evolution of this artist's work.
Chann's early painting style took shape at the beginning of the 1940s with the use of Post-Impressionist techniques to portray social realist subjects. Chann's Moulin Rouge No. 4-Dancing Ladies (Lot 203) offers a glimpse into the way in which his painting style was steeped in the social realist spirit that was prevalent during this period. While Chann fearlessly directs the viewer's gaze toward the often overlooked misfortunes of those in the lower strata of society, his motivation derives from a profound humanistic concern for the disadvantaged. The artist returned to his native China between 1947 and 1949, where he practiced and exchanged ideas regarding ink painting and calligraphy with artist-calligrapher friends Huang Junbi and Zhao Shao'ang. It was this period in particular that solidified Chann's deep-rooted love for Chinese culture.
In the 1950s, just at the point when Abstract Expressionism was coming into vogue in art circles in the United States, Chann returned from China and was giving serious thought to the direction of his next artistic transformation. He felt the urge to return once again the source of the culture and aesthetics of his home country. Vertical Mountains (Lot 198) and Abstract Calligraphy on a Green Field (Lot 201) display two concurrent experiments that helped to define his creative direction. Though both works were created during the 1960s, through one viewers can witness his mastery of traditional landscape and calligraphy, and through the other, Chann's remarkably bold experimentation with different mediums to transform the traditional landscape composition onto canvas. In Vertical Mountains the artist utilizes Western modernist structure and color on the paper's surface. Through using traditional media, infused with his mastery of modern painting theory, he renders the distant Chinese landscape of his imagination.
Creating a sharp juxtaposition is Chann's Abstract Calligraphy on a Green Field, a work nearly two meters in height which dates to about 1965, around when he had just moved into a new home with a larger studio area allowing him more creative space. Working here on a Western canvas, the artist produces a lyrical and joyous outpouring that transcends any specific physical imagery. Chann's brushstrokes are concentrated and concise, but flowing, as he perfectly combines the elements of classical painting and calligraphy with newly emerging types of mixed media. A classic masterpiece of George Chann's work from the 1960s, Abstract Calligraphy on a Green Field was included in the joint exhibition "Round the Clock: Chinese-American Artists" at the Vincent Price Art Museum in Los Angeles in 2012.
During the 1970s, Chann continued to work simultaneously with both Chinese landscape and abstract painting. Moonrise Landscape (Lot 202), portrays in watercolor and graphite a dark night in a lonely moonlit valley; Chann's works on paper like this one only rarely make appearances on the market. In the development of his abstract painting during this period, Chann very much followed his own inclinations. In Calligraphy with Slate Grey Frame (Lot 207), in Orange and White (Tablet and Chop) (Lot 209), and in other works from the same time, the artist found inspiration in ancient vessels and utensils, using stone stele inscriptions or rubbings taken from ancient implements as a basis for his work. Chann would then cut and tear these rubbings into discontinuous fragments for use in collages on the canvas, after which he combined media, often ink, oil, and pastel, to add further calligraphic brushwork on top. By building these rich, complex, and detailed visual layers, Chann's works evoke the sense of remnants of a deeply buried history.
Chann's use of a highly diverse selection of media and color extends into his work from the 1980s. His 1984 Blue Collage (Lot 200) is an outstanding work representative of this period with its brilliant colors applied with a variety of calligraphic forms that flow and rush across the canvas. At the same time, Chann builds up layered textures in his oils that once again evoke a sense of historical remnants and passing time left in the traces of their weathered, mottled surfaces. Chann's colors are bold and bright, and in the layers he builds up we can see bits of notebooks, T-shirts, or even balloons, which create geometrical blocks of color; the effect he creates also form an interesting contrast with the primary colors and blocked-out geometrical forms often seen in the works of Barnett Newman. In addition, it is important to note that during this period Chann also began a series of city scenes in primarily blue palettes. In Hong Kong Harbour(Lot 204), form vaguely enters into and recedes from visual awareness; the artist expresses only the essence of images in the dazzling contrasts of these warm and cool tones and in the lines that imbue the work with energy. Chann captures the glow of neon lights and the lively, bustling scene of the harbor-side city.
In L.A. on Fire - Rodney King (Lot 199), a work from the artist's later years, the artist responds to the incidents surrounding the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Chann's high-intensity, saturated colors and his rich layering and variations of texture project the sense of tension and conflict between police and citizens during that time. The canvas is imbued with a fierce and fiery living energy that burns throughout-as Chann's last important work before departing this world, it is not only deeply moving and but also possesses a rare and precious historical value.
Taken as a whole, George Chann's creative life rested upon the beauty found in the graceful expressions of Chinese calligraphy and the artifacts of China's ancient culture. Through a seemingly random filtering and re-arrangement of elements, the deconstructed words and motifs in his paintings take on new meaning and exude the pure beauty and power of calligraphic art. Chann constructed a highly individual painting style with abstract forms and modes of thought in a distinctly Chinese vein. Through recognition and appreciation at the many solo and joint exhibitions at museums too numerous to name, some at which his works remain in the permanent collection, George Chann has earned his place as a quintessential Chinese-American artist. His ability to move subtly between the poles of representational and abstract art derives from a lifetime of artistic exploration. Moreover, the source of the profound impact his works have to move us lies precisely in the unshakeable emotional conviction he felt toward life, tradition, and home.