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 (
In 2020, a labor attache from the Philippines in Taipei sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanding that a Filipina worker accused of “cyber-libel” against then-president Rodrigo Duterte be deported. A press release from the Philippines office from the attache accused the woman of “using several social media accounts” to “discredit and malign the President and destabilize the government.” The attache also claimed that the woman had broken Taiwan’s laws. The government responded that she had broken no laws, and that all foreign workers were treated the same as Taiwan citizens and that “their rights are protected,
A white horse stark against a black beach. A family pushes a car through floodwaters in Chiayi County. People play on a beach in Pingtung County, as a nuclear power plant looms in the background. These are just some of the powerful images on display as part of Shen Chao-liang’s (沈昭良) Drifting (Overture) exhibition, currently on display at AKI Gallery in Taipei. For the first time in Shen’s decorated career, his photography seeks to speak to broader, multi-layered issues within the fabric of Taiwanese society. The photographs look towards history, national identity, ecological changes and more to create a collection of images
A series of dramatic news items dropped last month that shed light on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attitudes towards three candidates for last year’s presidential election: Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), Terry Gou (郭台銘), founder of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). It also revealed deep blue support for Ko and Gou from inside the KMT, how they interacted with the CCP and alleged election interference involving NT$100 million (US$3.05 million) or more raised by the
March 16 to March 22 In just a year, Liu Ching-hsiang (劉清香) went from Taiwanese opera performer to arguably Taiwan’s first pop superstar, pumping out hits that captivated the Japanese colony under the moniker Chun-chun (純純). Last week’s Taiwan in Time explored how the Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) theme song for the Chinese silent movie The Peach Girl (桃花泣血記) unexpectedly became the first smash hit after the film’s Taipei premiere in March 1932, in part due to aggressive promotion on the streets. Seeing an opportunity, Columbia Records’ (affiliated with the US entity) Taiwan director Shojiro Kashino asked Liu, who had
RSS