2014.523: 1969-23

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2014.523

People

Fong Chung-Ray (Feng zhongrui) 馮鍾睿, Chinese (Nanyang, Henan province born 1933)

Title

1969-23

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

painting, wall scroll

Date

1969

Culture

Chinese

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/319255

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Horizontal wall scroll; ink and color on paper, with artist’s dated signature

Dimensions

painting proper: 34 x 94 cm (13 3/8 x 37 in.)
Framed: 68.58 x 119.7 x 5.08 cm (27 x 47 1/8 x 2 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: Lower right, black ink: Feng Zhongrui (Chinese brush-written characters)
• inscription: title, date, and signature brush-written in black ink at lower right: "Feng Zhongrui jiyou zhi ershi san" (Feng Zhongrui No. 23 of the jiyou year [1969])

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Feng Zhongrui, Taiwan (1969-by 1973?), probably gift; to Chu-tsing Li, Lawrence, Kansas (by 1973?-2012), gift; to his son B U.K. Li, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2012-2014), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2014.

Footnotes:
1. Dr. Chu-tsing Li (1920-2014)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Chu-tsing Li Collection, Gift of B U.K. Li in memory of Chu-tsing Li, Yao-wen Kwang Li, and Teri Ho Li

Accession Year

2014

Object Number

2014.523

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

Subtly varied in its earthy browns and celestial blues, and vigorously brushed in black ink, this horizontal composition shares some affinity with “landscapes” despite its nonobjective composition. An imaginary space asserts itself around some of the forms and offers a vaguely organic impression.
Feng Zhongrui, who left China for Taiwan in 1949, was a member of the Fifth Moon Group. Like other members of the group, he developed a modernist style, incorporating elements inspired by Western abstract expressionism into Chinese painting. He achieved spontaneous effects by splashing and applying ink and color with a palm-fiber brush.

Publication History

• Robert D. Mowry and Claudia Brown, A Tradition Redefined: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings from the Chu-tsing Li Collection, 1950-2000, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums/Yale University Press (Cambridge, Mass., 2007), cat. 19

Exhibition History

• A Tradition Redefined: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings from the Chu-tsing Li Collection, 1950-2000, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 11/03/2007 - 01/27/2008; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, 06/28/2008 - 09/14/2008; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, 10/11/2008 - 01/04/2009; Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, 02/11/2009 - 05/24/2009

Verification Level