PRINTPROVENANCE :
Private Collection, France
Private Collection, France
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Jeune Fille Américaine
(Portrait of a Young American Woman) |
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1928 Oil on paper 29 x 20 cm Signed lower right Yun and Yun Gee in Chinese and English |
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Estimate
1,400,000 - 2,400,000 333,000 - 570,000 42,900 - 73,500
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Sold Price
1,440,000 344,498 44,335
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Catalogue Note:
A Chinese artist who developed his career early in Europe and the U.S., Yun Gee was active in New York and Paris—two of the most important centers of art—in the 1920s and 1930s. He was particularly prominent and influential in the development of American modernist art. After the 1950s, Yun Gee was hit by the dual challenges of the harsh conditions faced by the Chinese in America and by the economic recession. As a result, his career development in the art scene was disrupted and finally came to an end. However, this did not stop his artistic achievements from shining through.
In 1926, Yun Gee, who was then 20 years old, held his first solo exhibition in San Francisco, and it was very well received. At the exhibition, he became acquainted with Prince Achille Murat (nephew of Napoleon) and his wife Princess Achille Murat. Based on their referral, Yun Gee moved to Paris in 1927 and quickly assimilated into the local art circle, where he proposed the theory of diamondism. The theory, clearly and deeply influenced by cubism, advocated dividing what we see into countless surfaces, just like the many facets of a diamond. Yun Gee also tried to extract the internal message (the root of life and spirit) of sketched subjects through the process of separation and reassembling. This became an important axis of his works in his lifetime.
At the end of the same year, the Galerie Carmine art gallery of Paris held a successful solo exhibition for him. Yun Gee successfully held a constant stream of exhibitions in Paris, all the way until his return to the U.S. in 1930. Composed in 1928, Jeune Fille Amricaine was an outstanding piece of work from that era. In the work, Yun Gee divided the girl's profile into many surfaces. He boldly used contrasting bright colors—yellow, green, blue and pink, which compete with each other for attention, cleverly creating an attractive portrait of a girl. The girl’s pink lips are gorgeous and her face is filled with bright colors. The blue strands of hair on her forehead make her facial features stand out even more vividly - leaving the audience in awe of the artist's mastery and precision of shapes and colors. Yun Gee married the German Poet paule de Reuss in the February of 1928. This painting could be a portrait of Reuss.
In 1926, Yun Gee, who was then 20 years old, held his first solo exhibition in San Francisco, and it was very well received. At the exhibition, he became acquainted with Prince Achille Murat (nephew of Napoleon) and his wife Princess Achille Murat. Based on their referral, Yun Gee moved to Paris in 1927 and quickly assimilated into the local art circle, where he proposed the theory of diamondism. The theory, clearly and deeply influenced by cubism, advocated dividing what we see into countless surfaces, just like the many facets of a diamond. Yun Gee also tried to extract the internal message (the root of life and spirit) of sketched subjects through the process of separation and reassembling. This became an important axis of his works in his lifetime.
At the end of the same year, the Galerie Carmine art gallery of Paris held a successful solo exhibition for him. Yun Gee successfully held a constant stream of exhibitions in Paris, all the way until his return to the U.S. in 1930. Composed in 1928, Jeune Fille Amricaine was an outstanding piece of work from that era. In the work, Yun Gee divided the girl's profile into many surfaces. He boldly used contrasting bright colors—yellow, green, blue and pink, which compete with each other for attention, cleverly creating an attractive portrait of a girl. The girl’s pink lips are gorgeous and her face is filled with bright colors. The blue strands of hair on her forehead make her facial features stand out even more vividly - leaving the audience in awe of the artist's mastery and precision of shapes and colors. Yun Gee married the German Poet paule de Reuss in the February of 1928. This painting could be a portrait of Reuss.