Chu-tsing Li passed away peacefully Tuesday, September 16th at the age of 94 at St. John’s on the Lake in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
He graduated from Puiching High School in Macao, received a BA in English from Nanjiing Univ. in Chengdu, China, an MA in English from and PhD in Art
History from the Univ. of Iowa (1954) where he taught for 10 years. Teaching at the University of Kansas
for 19 years, he was the Judith Harris Murphy Distinguished Professor of Art
History and Research Curator, Nelson-Atkins
Museum, Kansas City. He received a Ford Foundation Grant to retrain in Chinese Art at Harvard and Princeton Univ.
(1960) and an American Council of Learned Studies Grant to spend a one-year
sabbatical in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan (1964). He visited China frequently after 1972 and became the first
Fulbright Visiting Exchange Scholar to China in 1979.
He had an illustrious academic career in Chinese art
history. A tireless teacher, he mentored 28 PhD and 50 MA students who have
taught or curated at Princeton, Washington Univ. St. Louis, Arizona State Univ.;
Harvard, Phoenix Art and Asian Art (S.F.) Museums and National
Palace Museum, Taiwan.
A relentless scholar of Yuan painting, he published some 19 books and
catalogs including the seminal Autumn
Colors on the Ch’iao and Hua Mountains by Chao Meng-fu (1964), and on artists from the Ming, Qing Dynasties and contemporary works. With a keen eye, he
first recognized merit of contemporary (abstract) Chinese ink paintings in early 1960s,
organized exhibitions, published catalogs and opened up the field. Many of his collected works in A Tradition Redefined: Chinese Ink Paintings
in the C.T. Li Collection will be donated to Harvard and Phoenix Art Museums.
He touched many graduate students, art historians, collectors, curators and
Chinese artists throughout the world with his rigorous, yet humble approach.
He was husband of the late Yao-wen Kwang Li (56 years). He was son
of deceased Wu Zi Li and Jing Tran Hsieh (Taiwan). He was father of B U.K. Li (Milwaukee)
and Amy Lee (Portland). He was grandfather to Rachel Li Cullivan (spouse
John NJ) and Benjamin Li (MI), and Daniel Lee, Brandon Lee, Christopher Lee
(OR). He was great grandfather to Jack and Naomi Cullivan. He was preceded in death by elder
and younger brothers Chu-ling Li and Chu-shan Li.
He is further survived by relatives in California,
Taiwan and Guangzhou, China,
his birthplace.
There will be an informal reception in November 2014
in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin TBA. There will be a formal memorial service in May of 2015 in
Lawrence, Kansas TBA. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to
Chu-tsing Li Award for Graduate Students in Chinese Art, University of Kansas
Endowment Association, P.O. Box 928, Lawrence, KS 66044.
