Oil on silk mounted on fiberboard

64 x 48 cm. 25 1/4 x 18 7/8 in.

Signed in English on bottom right

LITERATURE
1998, Yun Gee, Lin & Keng Gallery, Taipei, p.64-65
Nov 1998, Artist Magazine, Artist Publishing House, Taipei, p.159
EXHIBITED
14 Nov – 1 Dec 1998, Yun Gee Solo Exhibition, Lin & Keng Gallery, Taipei

PROVENANCE
Lin & Keng Gallery, Taipei
Important Private Collection, Asia

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Lin & Keng Gallery, Taipei

The Brilliance of Life and Wisdom
Yun Gee – Masterpiece Portrait of a Lifelong Love

All artists who create from the heart attempt to express the era in which they live, people's opinions on things and what they observe. The Diamondism of painting is like a triangular prism, a medium, a driving force and not a cause. The body shapes in Diamondist works can be immeditely identified and so are able to perfectly showcase the inner structure of bodies in a way that viewers do not find too ugly or difficult to recognize, this is the “Diamondism” in painting.

The above quote is from Yun Gee's Diamondism Declaration in 1937. In any review of the art history of the 20th Century, Gee is without doubt one of the era's exceptional artists. He used his natural talent and tireless effort to detail the struggles of an ethnic Chinese artist in the US and Europe in the face of anti-Chinese policies and racism, his experience of a social environment plagued by depression after World War I and World War II, and what it took to keep getting back up as an artist in the face of constant setbacks. Moreover, as with the Diamondism he expounded, Gee's works always attempt to reflect the era, society and his own ideas through beauty, including the inspiration he gained from life.

A Resounding Cry Heard Far and Wide

Yun Gee was born in Guangdong Province, China in 1906 and traveled to San Francisco alone at the age of 15 to be with his father, who supported him studying at the California School of Fine Arts. Gee's character was avant-garde and he boldly experimented and threw himself heart and soul into art, as seen in 1926 when he and his classmates established “The Modern Gallery” to hold their own exhibitions, while also hosting the “Chinese Revolutionary Artists Club.” It was in that year Gee held his first exhibition at “The Modern Gallery,” showing a series of well-received works imbued with a powerful sense of co-colorism, rhythm and color rhyme. The 72 paintings on show were all sold, with Prince and Princess Murat from Paris not only collecting the artist's works, but also urging him to relocate to Paris, the center of the art world at that time. Ultimately, Gee lived in Paris on two occasions, from 1927-1930 and 1936-1939. While in France he also held numerous solo exhibitions in galleries and was nominated several times at the authoritative “Salon des Indépendants” and “Salon d'Automne”; In 1937, a judge at the Salon des Indépendants, Luce, selected the top 20 artists from more than 6,000 participants in a column he wrote in the best-selling Cride Paris daily newspaper -- one of whom was Yun Gee. In 1938, the artist also participated in the Outstanding Modern Artists Group Exhibition held at the Nevo Gallery” with Amedeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso. During the eight years the artist spent in Paris he reached the very pinnacle of the art world.

Yun Gee lived for periods of time in San Francisco, Paris and New York, and the rich cultural and aesthetic life of those cities nurtured his artistic spirit. As art critic Gu Yue points out: “The creative work of Yun Gee evolved from co-colorism in the San Francisco period, to the adoption of brushstrokes infused with allegory and lyricism, under the influence of Impressionism and Expressionism when he moved to Paris in 1927, followed by his free exploration of Eastern and Western aesthetics in the 1930s in New York and on his second stay in France. By 1940, he had transcended Expressionism and ultimately this crystallized into the peak of his Diamondism period. This is the personal art history of wandering poet, modern artist and Diamondist advocate Yun Gee.” Throughout his career, the artist primarily focused on portraits and landscape motifs and on this occasion the work on offer is Portrait of Woman in Chair, the first time ever to be auctioned. Completed in 1940, this is an iconic painting produced at the peak of his Diamondism period.

A Crystallization of Poetry and Spirit

“Yun Gee is a rare and commendable painter, he is also a poet. The most unique aspect of his work is a poetry and verve that most Western artists lack. This is entirely derived from his esoteric cultural background. For 30 years I have felt that Picasso is the greatest artist, but on recently seeing the works of Yun Gee, I would say that his expressive skill and life energy are completely unique.”
——French art critic, Andre Salmon, Paris Art Bulletin, 1938

In Portrait of Woman in Chair Yun Gee takes the rare step of using an Eastern silk scroll instead of a canvas, the material for which was sent to him by his mother. Moreover, Gee only used silk instead of canvas on a handful of works throughout his career. Examples include Yang Kwei Fei at Her Bath, (1929) The Charm of Music (1930) and The Last Supper (1933) and two versions of Portrait of Helen (1935-36), all of which had special meaning to the artist and which he considered of particular importance. Portrait of Woman in Chair was painted one year after Gee returned to New York, leaving Paris following the outbreak of war between Germany and France. Despite being effectively forced to return to the US, he quickly recovered his creative motivation and passion and in 1940 held solo exhibitions at Tempo Gallery and Montross Gallery, marking a new creative peak that is evident in the auctioned work. Despite using extremely delicate silk, which was generally used only for traditional Eastern elaborate-style painting, Gee boldly employs Western oil colors and Western modernist spirit in the background. Indeed, the majestic use of dark green and brown over a large area and the artist's resolute brushwork enhances the spatial dimensions of the work, utilizing the arrangement of light and shade in the colors to highlight the main figure in the foreground. The free and easy but refined strokes combined with the warm yellow-orange earth colors interpret the posture of the figure in the painting. The woman's body is lithe and she has a gentle and good natured expression, though her face is depicted more realistically than is usual, using Gee's Diamondism and different shaped blocks, which attracts the attention of viewers. Moreover, the colored blocks of sky blue, rose red, lush green and tangerine orange are like dancing musical notes that ensure the face brims with color, revealing what Salmon referred to as “poetry and verve” and brings to mind the words of French poet René Char: “You who have known me, blossoming pomegranates, daybreak bedecked with idyllic joy, your face, -- how is it now, I hope it is always thus -- so free, and when it comes into contact with the boundless black circles under the eyes of the sky it draws back. Your face opens ever so slightly on encountering me, wearing for me the beautiful street block of your imagination. I stop inside your sunshine mill and find refuge in the purity there, where those with dreams never grow old.” These words light up the heart of the viewer, encouraging us to move closer to the painting and wonder what kind of person this is and ask why did Yun Gee paint her?

Eternal Princess Paule

The figure in the painting has gently placed a book on her knee, revealing that she likes reading. She is dressed in an elegant and graceful manner in a dress that has a “V” collar design with a broad waistband around her midriff, a popular fashion in late 1930s Paris. If we compare her short hair, bright eyes, white teeth, facial features, and expression, it becomes clear that this is the artist's first wife Princess Paule de Reuss who was a French aristocrat of German extraction and poet. The two met in December 1927 when Yun Gee held his first exhibition in Paris at the Carmaine Gallery. His works were very much liked by poet and dancer Raymond Duncan, who gave a public talk introducing them and the next day organized a group to visit the artist at his studio. De Reuss was one of the visitors that day and afterwards wrote a newspaper article praising Gee's work. She was also a great admirer of Eastern culture and often talked at length with the artist about art, the philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi, the Book of Songs, The Analects etc. The two fell in love and in 1930 married. Although later life pressures forced them to part they remained best friends for the rest of their lives. Despite later remarrying, the artist's second wife Helen Wimmer recounted that Yun Gee hung a photograph of Paule de Reuss at the side of his bed.

Yun Gee painted Paule de Reuss four times in his lifetime, the first three – Portrait of Paule de Reuss, The Poetess and Paule Painting were during his time in Paris from 1929 into the 1930s. However, when he painted Portrait of Woman in Chair the two had already separated and this work is the only one of the four to showcase the artist's Diamondist spirit and in which the figure stares back at the viewer. In 1939, when Gee left Paris for the US, before leaving de Reuss handed him a letter in which she wrote: “Dear, please send me photographs of your works, I want you to continue painting and in that way prove there is no war in art.” Afterwards, amid the chaos of wartime the two had no contact for seven years. It is therefore possible to imagine how Gee felt when he painted this work in 1940, as if embracing nostalgia, longing and the words of encouragement de Reuss gave him before leaving. It is as if he expresses the true feelings and love he felt as a young man through his brushwork in this final portrait of her. In this way, Gee forever captures her elegant posture, wise face, pure heart and spirit and her peace of mind. The expression of the figure in the painting brings to mind a line in a poem by de Reuss: “Perfection enshrouds, my heart is at peace. The fire of friendship burns in my chimney ... I hope countless tomorrows inspire the earth, so that often after the sun sleeps it returns to Earth.” In this painting Yun Gee does much more than showcase the appearance of the figure, he successfully conveys her inner life and it is this that imbues the work with its richness of depth and boundless inner meaning.

Price estimate:
HKD: 2,500,000 – 4,000,000
USD: 322,600 – 516,100

Auction Result:
HKD: 3,776,000