Tseng Yu-Ho

The Downtown Gallery, New York

This work is in good condition overall. Paper edges are visible on the lateral surfaces of the work, which is inherent to the artist's working method. Framed.
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Tseng Yu-Ho, known to her friends as Betty Ecke, is one of the preeminent Chinese painters and scholars of Chinese painting in the 20th century. Works by Tseng Yu-Ho are prominently collected by institutions around the world, and she deserves to be recognized for her contributions to art history ranking among those of Wang Jiqian in New York, Zao Wuki in Paris, Lü Shoukun in Hong Kong and Liu Guosong in Taiwan. The combination of her skilled background and earnest desire for innovation prompted her discovery of dsui painting--a unique mixed media and paper collage technique that identifies her works for decades. As an artist, her training is deeply rooted in the classical tradition. Her passion for the arts extended beyond mastering the skills of the brush and ink to learning the art of seal carving, scroll mounting and calligraphy. As a scholar, she spent years studying both Chinese and Western art history. She and her art historian husband, Gustav Ecke, moved from Beijing to Hawaii in 1949, where she lived for over fifty years. Throughout her career, she held numerous teaching positions at the University of Hawaii as a professor of Chinese art history and painting. She also authored several treatises on the art of Chinese painting and calligraphy in English that have influenced generations of artists and students alike.  

Peaks is an exquisite work that is an example of early experiments with collage and the result of refining her dsui painting in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Tseng Yu-Ho describes three methods of dsui painting, in which Peaks not only combines all three, but also alludes to the landscape compositions of classical Chinese painting. The first method is using paper, torn into a shape at random, which serves as the basis of the composition. The second method uses line drawings, originating as sketches, which become the skeletal support for further painting with layers of paper and colour. The third method applies metallic colors using gold, palladium or aluminum foil to create texture and enrich the overall design. Reminiscent of Ni Zan's Six Gentlemen (Shanghai Museum), where six thin trees stand tall in front of a wide expanse and mountains in the distance, Peaks is composed of a band of aluminum atop torn paper with six narrow black lines are likely formed from a quick sketch of iconic tree forms found in Chinese landscape paintings. Tseng Yu-Ho is not merely a Chinese artist living abroad and inspired by global forms of artistic creation, but a true representative of artistic wisdom. Her abstracted interpretation of a landscape, combined with the deliberate and masterful dsui painting techniques makes this work a wonderful example of 'landscapes in mind'.