Sanyu: His Life and Complete Works in Oil

Chronicling the life and works of an underappreciated Chinese painter who fused Western and Eastern art.

Known as the "Chinese Matisse," Chang Yu or Sanyu (1895-1966) was one of the first modern Chinese artists to study Western art in Paris. This first volume of the catalogue raisonné is dedicated to a biography of the artist's life. Editor Rita Wong walks readers through the stages of Sanyu's career: from his early life in Qing Dynasty China to his journey to France as part of a government work-study program, his nude drawings made at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, his experiments in printmaking, his time spent in New York with documentarian Robert Frank and even his brief promotion of a sport he invented called "ping-tennis." These chapters are copiously illustrated with Sanyu's watercolor sketches, photographs, calligraphy, newspaper clippings and more archival material that fully immerses readers into the story of his life.