PROVENANCE:
Sotheby's sale, Hong Kong, April 7, 2007, lot 31

An ethnic Chinese artist active in the first half of the 20th century, Yun Gee’s cutting-edge artistic lexicon and steadfast commitment to selfimprovement as a painter ultimately made him a truly great artist. The work that Yun Gee produced while living in the U.S.A. was influenced by the Synchronism movement; subsequently, after moving to Paris, Yun Gee made frequent visits to the Louvre and other art museums, and spent much time in the company of local artists, including members of the École de Paris school. After Yun Gee’s disconsolate departure from Paris and return to the U.S.A., these experiences continued to exert their influence on his art. Although Yun Gee never held an exhibition of his work in China. during this lifetime, his art definitely influenced the development of modern art in America in the twentieth century, and today Yun Gee’s paintings can be found in the collections of major U.S. art museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art (in New York), the Oakland Museum of California (in San Francisco), and the Hirschhorn Museum (in Washington D.C.). Overall, Yun Gee’s artistic achievements were quite remarkable.

Yun Gee’s artistic career can be broadly divided into three stages: his time spent living in San Francisco, his sojourns in Paris (two separate occasions), and his time spent living in New York (two separate periods). Initially, Yun Gee’s style derived mainly from his training at the California College of the Arts and Crafts (now the California College of the Arts) in San Francisco, where he studied under Otis Oldfield. Yun Gee’s art during the period before he left the U.S.A. for the first time hovered on the border between the semi-representational and the fully abstract, and showed a pronounced Synchronist influence, with the use of strong, bright, contrasting color tones and lines that seem to break up almost at random. Yun Gee’s work from this period also displays great attention to the relationship between composition and color; in some paintings, there is a pronounced hint of Expressionism. While living in Paris, Yun Gee set himself the goal of achieving a fusion between East Asian and Western culture. While immersing himself in Paris’ many great art museums, Yun Gee was also very much aware of the Surrealist movement that was still in its heyday at the time. Several of his works from this period deal have themes that reflect Taoist thought or other aspects of Chinese culture. One significant change in Yun Gee’s style that is apparent in this period is a move away from bright color tones towards darker, more muted colors, and an increasing tendency to combine colors with similar tones rather than with contrasting tones; there is also an increase in the number of paintings featuring representational human figures and landscapes. The subject matter of, and use of color in, Yun Gee’s paintings from this period suggest that the artist’s outlook on life may have become more pessimistic, despite the fact that, while still in his 20s, Yun Gee had already held several solo exhibitions in Paris, and appeared to have a bright future ahead of him.

Having become disenchanted with Paris and with the discrimination and prejudice he sensed there, Yun Gee eventually made the sad decision to return to the U.S.A., where he settled in New York. Although the discrimination that ethnic Chinese faced in America at that time, and the recognition that he had little chance of achieving recognition for his work in New York’s art world, led him to return to Paris for a time, the outbreak of the Second World War forced him to return again to New York. Over the course of his career, Yun Gee created many paintings of Central Park, possibly because this was a place he had visited often with his daughter Li-lan, and which thus held special meaning for him. Judging from the subject matter and the form taken by the signature, this particular painting, “Central Park,” is likely to have been painted in the 1940s. Stylistically, the painting shows conspicuous Expressionist influence, but it is no longer the vigorous, dramatic Expressionism of Yun Gee’s Parisian period. The skyscrapers in the distance are depicted with a fresh, detailed purity of line, while the slightly deformed appearance of the trunks and branches of the trees in the foreground has a touch of the Realist school about it, suggesting the beginnings of a shift towards a “narrative” Modernist approach in Yun Gee’s style. Although the colors are brighter and richer than in some of his previous work, and the beauty of the scene exudes a sense of joy, there is still a solemnity, a darkness and a sense of ambiguity in the color tones that hints at Yun Gee’s dissatisfaction with the environment in which he found himself, and at his depression.

Moving between two cities, neither of which was really his homeland , coupled with the obstacles he faced because of his Chinese ancestry, meant that Yun Gee experienced a great deal of frustration and unhappiness in his life. At the same time, however, these tribulations helped to enrich his artistic vision, giving him a more perceptive awareness of situations and emotions. Although on the surface Yun Gee always seemed to be very active in artistic circles, he never achieved real recognition during his lifetime. The lonely path that he was forced to tread gave his life a tragic aspect, but it also made him continue on creating arts alone. “Central Park” shows how, after having developed his own unique artistic lexicon, Yun Gee was able to find release for his feelings of depression and hopelessness through his painting; this is one of the finest works produced by Yun Gee during his time in New York.