2013.160: 1973-12

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2013.160

People

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

Title

1973-12

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

painting, hanging scroll

Date

1973

Culture

Chinese

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/319257

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Circular painting mounted as a hanging scroll; ink and color on paper, with artist’s dated signature

Dimensions

painting proper: 52 cm (20 1/2 in.)
full mounting: 85 x 61.9 cm (33 7/16 x 24 3/8 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: Lower right, black ink: Feng Zhongrui (Chinese brush-written characters)
• inscription: brush-written in lower right of painting: Signed: "Feng Zhongrui No. 12 of 1973"

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Feng Zhongrui, Taiwan (1973), probably gift; to Chu-tsing Li, Lawrence, Kansas (1973-2012), gift; to his son B U.K. Li, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2012-2013), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2013.

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 honor of Chu-tsing Li and in memory of Yao-wen Kwang Li and Teri Ho Li

Accession Year

2013

Object Number

2013.160

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

Reds and pinks are juxtaposed with black ink and varied hues of brown. The resulting fiery contrast adds drama to the striking forms. Although there is a gestural power in these shapes, they are constructed deliberately, just as the layering of colors is calculated. While welcoming accident and spontaneity, the artist carefully controlled his process.
Feng Zhongrui, who had moved from China to Taiwan in 1949, was active in the modernist movement led by members of the Fifth Moon Group. Together with Liu Guosong, he explored concepts of abstraction and nonobjective painting, taking inspiration in part from the American abstract expressionists and enlisting Chinese media in novel ways.

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. 21

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