TENG-HIOK CHIU (Chinese, 1903-1972). BOATS, double sided oil on board, signed Chiu in English lower left - 11 1/2 in. x 9 1/4 in. Estimate $2,000-3,000
Prof. Kazimierz Z. Poznanski in "Path of the Sun, The World of Teng Hick Chiu" wrote: " First Chinese modernist painter...related through marriage to General Chiang Kai-shek...in 1921 he joined the School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (to be tutored by Irwin Hoffman)...Of to Europe in 1923...he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux Arts...University of London in 1924...in 1925-1929 at the Royal Academy of Arts"... He was the first foreigner to be granted the membership of Royal Society of British Artists.
"I am trying to get the best out of both Eastern and Western art. ...But at the end all real art is the same, You may start from the East or from the West, with one or the other set of conventions but if you really develop you belong neither to the East nor the West. Art is an universal language which speaks to every human heart" Teng H. Chiu
For another double sided painting see Christie's, Hong Kong, November 30,2009, lot 1326.
PPROVENANCE: Property from the estate of Mabel T. Francis. The back inscribed: "Miss Holwell from her motocar pupil, November 4th - December 5th 1030. Kulangsu, Amoy, China". Miss Holwell was the daughter of Claude N. Holwell, Commissioner of Maritime Customs at Amoy.