Yun Gee
Yun Gee was a prominent Chinese American modernist painter recognized for integrating Chinese philosophical themes into his artwork, while drawing inspiration from various avant-garde movements, including cubism and surrealism. Born in a small village near Canton, China, he faced significant historical and cultural shifts during his early years, particularly the Xinhai Revolution, before immigrating to San Francisco in 1921. Upon arriving in the United States, Gee pursued formal art training and became involved with influential circles of artists and writers, ultimately co-founding the Modern Gallery in 1926.
Throughout his career, Yun Gee's work included cityscapes, portraits, and pieces reflecting traditional Chinese themes, such as depictions of Confucius and Lao-tzu. Despite achieving a degree of recognition in both San Francisco and Paris, he often contended with discrimination. His time in Paris introduced him to renowned contemporaries like Cézanne and Matisse, which further shaped his artistic development. Later, his return to New York marked a profound period of creativity, although personal struggles persisted, leading to bouts of depression and alcoholism. Despite these challenges, Gee's legacy endures as a bridge between Eastern and Western art traditions, and his contributions to modernism continue to be celebrated today.
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Subject Terms
Yun Gee
Chinese-born artist and poet
- Born: February 22, 1906
- Place of Birth: Gee Village near Canton, Kwangtung, China (now Guangzhou, Guangdong, China)
- Died: June 5, 1963
- Place of Death: New York, New York
Yun Gee was the foremost Chinese American modernist painter, known for infusing Chinese philosophy and themes into paintings that were also influenced by cubism, surrealism, expressionism, and other avant-garde techniques.
Areas of achievement: Art
Early Life
Yun Gee was born Gee Wing Yun in a small village near Canton, China, to Gee Quong On and Wong See. Little is known about his early years, although his life was shaped by the 1911 Xinhai Revolution and its many uprisings, which led to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and the formation of the Chinese republic. He is believed to have received formal art training in silk painting, watercolor, and other traditional Chinese techniques from an early age. In his teenage years, he began to align with the Communist Party and drew on the related cultural movement for inspiration, drawing also on European modernism and other avant-garde artwork, abandoning, in part, his Chinese heritage.
In 1921, Gee left his mother and siblings permanently to join his father in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Gee’s father was a merchant who had opportunistically obtained citizenship in the United States after immigration records were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Gee began writing poetry and enrolled at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute), where he met the modernist painter Otis Oldfield and other influential artists. While he lived a marginalized and impoverished lifestyle—as did most other Chinese immigrants—his paintings and drawings of Chinatown and other subjects, inspired by synchromism, cubism, and other experimental styles, attracted the attention of an influential circle of writers and artists, including the poet Kenneth Rexroth. With Oldfield and others, Gee founded the Modern Gallery in 1926, later known as the San Francisco Art Center, known for once hosting Mexican painter Diego Rivera.
Life’s Work
In 1926, Gee formed the Chinese Revolutionary Artists’ Club in Chinatown to promote his leftist political stance and experimental art movements. He taught drawing and painting to Chinese students and continued to exhibit in group and solo shows. While successful in Chinatown, he could not overcome the discrimination of Greater San Francisco. A year later, he relocated to Paris after the Prince and Princess Achille Murat of France took him under their patronage.
During this first three-year residency, Gee married the German-French princess and poet Paule de Reuss, a marriage that incited her parents to disown her. As he eased into the Paris avant-garde art scene, he came into contact with Cézanne, Matisse, Modigliani, and other influential contemporaries. Some of Gee’s paintings from this period, such as Where Is My Mother (1926–27), The Flute Player (Self-Portrait) (1928), and How I Saw Myself in a Dream (ca. 1929), are considered among his best works. He exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and several prestigious galleries, often alongside celebrated artists. Nevertheless, he felt the same discrimination in Paris that he had dealt with in San Francisco.
In 1930, Gee left behind his marriage and Paris to further his career in New York. His experimental paintings from this period reflect many of the sites and people of the city; these paintings include Modern Apartment (1932) and Wheels: Industrial New York (1932), both of which were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) that same year. He also painted a mural in Chinatown to raise funds for the Chinese Flood Relief Campaign and worked on Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects.
While Gee reached a moderate level of acclaim in New York, he again felt marginalized. In 1936, he returned to the Paris art scene. There, he painted many portraits, including those of poet Paul Valéry and Madame Gabriel Perreux, and cityscapes such as Sorbonne Square (ca. 1938). He continued to exhibit widely at the Galerie à la Reine Margot and elsewhere.
In 1939, on the cusp of World War II, Gee returned to New York permanently. He continued to paint, although the alienation he felt as a Chinese American caused him to slump into depression and alcoholism. He emerged out of this darkness now and then to paint West Tower from Central Park in Winter (1952), Wannamaker Fire (1956), and other notable works. In his private life, he married and divorced Helen Wimmer, with whom he fathered one daughter, the artist Li-Lan. He died in 1963 of stomach cancer, leaving behind Velma Aydelott, his companion of many years.
Significance
During his lifetime, Gee failed to reach the level of acclaim to which he is celebrated as the only modernist Chinese American painter to gain stature within international art circles, a feat he achieved before he turned twenty-one. While his bold, colorful paintings reflect many different influences, including surrealism and expressionism, he also developed his own theory of color and perception, which he termed “diamondism.”
In addition to his cityscapes and portraits of celebrities, Gee painted many Chinese traditional themes and people, such as Confucius and Lao-tzu, providing a bridge between Eastern and Western traditions. He is also revered for his depictions of Chinatown and its working-class people.
When he was not painting, Gee wrote experimental poetry and essays that complement his artwork and offer insight into the modernist period from the unusual perspective of a Chinese immigrant.
Bibliography
Apmann, Sarah Bean. "Yun Gee: Modern Artist, Inventor, Poet, Villager." Off the Grid Village Preservation Blog, 22 Feb. 2021, www.villagepreservation.org/2021/02/22/yun-gee-modern-artist-inventor-poet-villager/. Accessed 19 Aug. 2024.
Brodsky, Joyce. Experiences of Passage: The Paintings of Yun Gee and Li-Lan. Seattle: U of Washington P, 2008. Print.
“Chronology.” Yun Gee. Estate of Yun Gee, n.d. Web. 2 Feb. 2012.
Lee, Anthony W. “Revolutionary Artists.” Picturing Chinatown: Art and Orientalism in San Francisco. Berkeley: U of California P, 2001. 201–36. Print.
---, ed. Yun Gee: Poetry, Writings, Art, Memories. Seattle: U of Washington P, 2003. Print.