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Female Nude Bust
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1930 - 1940 Oil on board 41 x 32.5 cm Signed lower left Yun Gee in English |
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Estimate
1,200,000 - 2,000,000 293,000 - 488,000 40,000 - 66,700
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Sold Price
1,440,000 368,286 47,478
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Around 1940, Yun Gee painted a few nude oil paintings; the women were usually depicted seated on a red armchair. As far back as 1929, Yun Gee (who was living in Paris at that time) had painted this red armchair on its own; his sense of isolation as a foreigner in Paris and his desire for personal growth were somehow embodied in this red chair in the French classical style, standing elegant but alone by the window. The same chair subsequently appeared in several nudes painted by Yun Gee during his "New York period", of which this painting – "Female Nude Bust" – is one.
"Overseas Chinese Artist - Yun Gee", Nancy Chou writes that Yun Gee's first showing of his nudity series created quite a controversy; critics felt that the painting had lost its structure and the viewer could only feel its soul. The wife of a British minister commented that although she was at first deeply attracted to the rich colors of the painting, she slowly progressed towards discovering the meaning of life, became immersed in searching for the deep subconscious and eventually forgot about the colors! Regardless, Yun Gee's portraits are always vaguely indistinct, exuding the mood and sentiments of a lonely soul and reflecting the artist's own hard life.
"Female Nude Bust" depicts a self-assured naked woman, whose gaze is clearly directed at something other than the artist who is painting her. With a muted and yet harmonious color scheme, and restrained emotional feeling, Yun Gee has employed his own subjective approach to depicting the woman's elegant form in a way that is both classical and modern. In this painting, time seems to stand still; this is a fine example of the unique expressive style that characterizes Yun Gee's paintings from his New York period.
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