$4,740
John Way (Chinese/American, b. 1921) Composition Signed and dated "John Way / 70" l.r. Oil and ink on plastic, 12 1/4 x 15 1/4 in. (31.1 x 38.7 cm), unframed. Condition: Minor surface grime, drying cracks. N.B. Shanghai-born artist John Way (also known as Wei Le-Tang) works in a style which blends his training in Chinese calligraphy with the spirit of Abstract Expressionism. Way uses both traditional Eastern and Western mediums of ink and oil, even combining the two as in the present work. Defying the conventional Western technique of "fat over lean", black ink is layered on top of the thinned oil in the present work, and the result is a powerful immediacy. The large and fluid ink brush strokes create a dramatic sense of scale, belying its actual size. A student of the modern Chinese calligrapher Li Jian (Chinese, d. c. 1950), Way immigrated to the United States in 1956 and settled in Boston, where he studied Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (1) Way was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at Shanghai Art Museum in 2001, and more recently at the Honolulu Academy of Arts in 2006. (1) Sullivan, Michael. Modern Chinese Artists: A Biographical Dictionary. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Pg. 169. The work is stable. It would probably benefit from a gentle cleaning.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2008-05-16
