Oil on canvas

73×92 cm. 28 3/4×36 1/4 in

Titled and signed in Chinese, numbered on bottom left
Titled and signed in Chinese, numbered on bottom left of the branch； signed in Chinese, numbered and dated on bottom reverse of the figure

LITERATURE
2007, Collectivism Guangci 2005-2007, Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai （another edition）
2008, The Sculpture of Qu Guangci, Aura Gallery, Hong Kong （another edition）
2008, Rumination, Tang Contemporary Art, Bangkok （another edition）
2010, Angel with a Mission： Guangci, X+Q Sculpture Studio, Beijiing （another edition）
EXHIBITED
14 Nov – 1 Dec 1998, Yun Gee Solo Exhibition, Lin & Keng Gallery, Taipei

PROVENANCE
14 Oct 2001, Christie’s Autumn Auction Taipei, Lot 37
Important Private Collection, Asia

Gloriously Radiant Legacy of the Generation
Master Piece from Yun Gee’s Paris Period ：Woman and Child Walking in Park （Sorbonne Square, Paris）
As one of China’s first oil artists to study abroad, Yun Gee lived his life as a seasoned traveler. He left his home of Guangzhou for San Francisco at the age of 15, pioneering the travels to America in Chinese art history. He was the first artist to be selected to exhibit in the prominent Salon des Indépendants in Paris at the age of 21 before leaving for New York when he was 24 years old to participate in the development of Modernism in North America, becoming the first artist of Chinese descent to assume such critical position in the history of Western contemporary art. He may have lived a short life, yet he was able to conceive a remarkable and distinct Modernist painting style solely relying on his persistent pursuit of art. His legendary tales that spanned continents further gave rise to his highly sophisticated and universal artistic vocabulary and concepts, making him a definite legend in the Chinese art scene of the twentieth century. Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Centre Georges-Pompidou and many other prominent Western art museums have all collected Gee’s artwork, further acknowledging his exceptional achievement on an international scale.
Unity：Perfecting Indivial Style
Yun Gee enrolled at the California School of Fine Arts （present day San Francisco Art Institute）in 1924. He studied Cubist techniques under Otis Oldfield, a mentor and a friend, while his training in Synchromism established a unique expression of colors. In the late 1920’s, Yun Gee diligently explored and studied from various art movements during his first trip to Paris, which marked a pivotal transition in his creation – his work started from richly colored and rhythmic qualities to focus on the construct of lines, structure and emotions, officially beginning his “Lyrical Period” of Paris, weaving his most intimate emotions and cultural integrity into his work； both color and composition serve to the need of the subject matter to seek a harmonious and lyrical state , a true manifestation of the creator’s spiritual essence and outlook on the value of life.
Yun Gee further expanded his painting subjects in New York, encapsulating the urban landscape of New York City in the face of industrial revolution in works such as Industrial New York. He returned to Paris again in 1936, launching the start of Woman and Child Walking in Park （Sorbonne Square, Paris）； since illustrating his cross-regional explorations in San Francisco, Paris and New York through work, he had accumulated experiences and insights in color, composition, emotions and even social realities and the values of life, entering into the ripe and sophisticated stage of his creative endeavors, exuding a more confident and comprehensive artistic charm distinctly his own.
Witnessing Greatness：A Treasured Work at the Peak of Life
Woman and Child Walking in Park was created in the late 1930’s （1936-1939）, which is Yun Gee’s landmark work at the apex of his life. The work centers around the artist’s most favored subject matter of parks and scenery, and it is the most monumental work of his Lyrical Period on the market in recent years. The work is a testament to the uniqueness of the artist’s painting style and skills, and provides a rare look into the only period of time when Yun Gee felt equally treated, respected and recognized by the Western world, and into his contentment and aspirations for the future.
Yun Gee returned to Paris in 1936, and welcomed the most fruitful time in his personal life, creative endeavors and career. He had met his second wife Helen a year prior, who not only fueled Yun Gee with energy but also supported and encouraged him to pursue art again in France； she funded his exhibitions and living expenses in Paris, allowing him to completely submerse himself within his art. His work was widely exhibited during this time, participating in 14 group exhibitions in 1937, showing alongside the masters of contemporary art of his time such as Pablo Picasso, Raoul Dufy, Andre Derain and others. La Reine Margot Gallery, the longest running gallery in Paris, had held Yun Gee’s large-scale solo exhibition two times, earning respect and recognition from the mainstream Western art circle.
Woman and Child Walking in Park sheds light on the streets of Paris in the 30’s, depicting the peacefulness as people stroll through the park of Sorbonne Square, bathing in sunlight. The campus of Pantheon-Sorbonne University now stands where Sorbonne Square once was, and it is one of the most significant landmarks in the development of European urban humanities. Yun Gee was particularly fond of the subject matters of urban landscape, parks and streets, and with his vaguely realist techniques, he documented the urban scenery in a modernist expressive style, compositing a distinctly singular expression from all his paintings. Yun Gee completed less than 200 oil paintings in his lifetime, within which 15 pieces are of park sceneries, and of which only four were created in 30’s. Woman and Child Walking in Park is the single richest and most exuberant work in terms of color and character. For it to be released for auction this time and presented in front of all, it truly is the perfect opportunity to collect such fine artwork.
Manifestation of Soul in Colors：Contentment and Modern Age
Woman and Child Walking in Park not only boasts Yun Gee’s signature diverse use of rich colors, it stands exceptionally refreshing and invigorating compared with other works of the same subject matter, unveiling Yun Gee’s content and upbeat state of mind in the Parisian art scene. Yun Gee amplifies the work’s visual tension through contrasting hues：from the characters’magenta and charcoal grey clothing in the foreground, the shifting warm colors of buildings and ever-changing color of green lawn and leaves in the middle ground, to the large color blocks of blue sky and ochre ground, each highly-saturated color radiates but balances one another at the same time, constructing a harmoniously dissonant landscape. The artist uses parallel and overlapping brushstrokes to create a three-dimensional form of objects through dynamic and rhythmic use of colors, providing colors with a subjective but spiritual significance. To the right of the image, one can observe that Yun Gee had abandoned realistic colors and opted for greyish white for the woman’s clothing – the seemingly arbitrary use of color is in fact the artist’s deliberate appropriation of cool toned visual effect, now coupled with image-building, he subjectively conveys the character’s fashionably modern spirit via a Modernist approach, positively wonderful.
Subjective Oval Composition：Interaction between Self and Time
His composition takes inspiration from Cezanne as seen in Woman and Child Walking in Park – it applies a subjective integration and intuitive arrangement but not the traditional one-point perspective or balanced structure. Yun Gee applies an oval-shaped method to outline the contour of Sorbonne Square that tilted upwards to the left, subjectively projecting a descending impression to the originally level field, suggesting a downward movement of the image. Since his first attempts to incorporate it into painting in the early 30’s to its repeated appearance in his “Central Park” Series in the New York period, the oval-shaped composition evolved to become one of the most recognizable symbols in Yun Gee’s urban landscape paintings. Influenced by École de Paris’s emphasis on structure, Yun Gee began exploring the interactive relationship between lines and compositional structures, converting the three-dimensional geometric space of the initial composition into curved structure.
The main oval-shaped sidewalk in Woman and Child Walking in Park extends outward horizontally, echoing the leaning trees in the center as curved lines are composited to become the framework, offering a rhythmic and poetic quality to the image； the densely-laid fences around the oval terrain start to align with the rows of windows on background buildings, and those intricately fine lines map out the exquisite and splendid nature of urban construction. Yun Gee’s ingenuity lies in the many details hidden in the image：the fashionable wear of the woman and little girl in the foreground, the modern vehicle parked in the background to the right and more are all fantastic representations of the then elegantly chic urban landscape of Paris. Through adept control of lines and composition, the artist encapsulates the beauty of Paris into the most lyrical iteration, combining the artist’s own contentment of his finest years and the urban life of Paris during its peaceful time before World War II to become the most delightful memory for himself and his time.

Price estimate:
HKD: 6, 000, 000 - 8, 000, 000
USD: 769, 200 - 1, 025, 600

Auction Result:
HKD: 8,200,000