Scholar’s Gathering in Honor of Prof. Chu-tsing Li

We recently held a three-day celebration October 10-12th in honor of my father on the 10th anniversary of his passing (September 2014) in the Boulder-Denver area. The signal event was a Yishujia (藝術家) = Artist Magazine (Taiwan), September 2024 special insert to commemorate the 10th year passing of my father, a substantial tribute written by you, his former graduate students, artists he mentored, colleagues and myself. This came about at the suggestion of Liu Kuo-sung who prompted An-yi Pan to take charge of this endeavor. Included essays: artists Liu Kuo-song, Chuang Ch, Fong Chung-Ray (all from the 5th Moon Group), Lee Chun-yi (Liu’s, Claudia’s and my father’s protégé), former students Joseph Chang, Arthur Mu-sen Kao Jane Ju, Claudia Brown, Jean Wetzel, Pat Graham, Janet Baker, Bob Mowry), David Cateforis and myself.

The core attendees included Janet Baker (Phoenix Art Museum), artist Arnold Chang and his wife Jillian (Jr-jye), Janet Chen (KU art history PhD) and her husband, Sobe Ky, Noelle Giuffrida (KU PhD, now at Ball State), Curt Hansman (DePaul), An-yi Pan (Cornell), Susan Tai (Santa Barbara Museum of Art), and Fred Gordon (collector). Hong Zhang (Lawrence-based Chinese ink painter who uses hair as a dominant motif) and her husband John Kennedy (KU Chinese political science) contracted COVID days before and could not attend in person.

Hosts included: Pat Graham, David Dunfield, Stephanie Su (Assistant Professor of Asian Art History CU-Boulder), Einor Cervone (Associate Curator of Asian Art, Denver Art Museum) and myself. We missed Bob Mowry, Claudia Brown, Ankeney Weitz, Janet Carpenter, Jean Wetzel, and Nila Baker, who were unable to align their schedules to join us.

The group first assembled on October 10th at the Denver Art Museum with a storage tour of recent acquisitions of modern and contemporary ink art led by Einor Cervone. Einor is an enthusiastic supporter of contemporary ink and was part of the curatorial team for Ink Dreams the large 400-painting promised gift to the LACMA by the Cognié family. The viewed works included those by Liu Kuo-Sung, Fong Chung-Ray, Liu Shou-Kwan, Chen Ting-shih, and others, many recently donated by Fred Gordon. And, in honor of my father, one painting affixing ink to canvas by a rapidly rising Chinese-American artist Ren Light Pan. To give you some notion of the level of discourse, An-yi astutely noted that the colophon on the Lui Shou-kwan painting looked flat, as if added later (2nd painting below). A catalog from 1978 confirmed that when it was first exhibited there was no inscription! After much discussion, Arnold, an ink artist formerly of Sotheby’s, suggested a plausible explanation for the mystery: the eventual collector probably wanted Lui to write on it and, already being mounted, the diffusion of ink, to the trained eye, was different.

The afternoon included a tour of the Chinese Gallery – calligraphy themed – with works by Fong Chung-Ray, Fung Mingchip, Lee Chun-Yi and Zheng Chongbin. Fong's recent work is shown below.

This was followed by a guided tour of the nearby Clyfford Still Museum that Einor arranged, led by the museum’s eloquent director, Joyce Tsai, who later joined the group for dinner. The evening’s dinner, that I hosted at the Fire Restaurant in the nearby Art Hotel, also included my son Ben Li, who works at Denver Health Emergency Medicine specifically on gun violence prevention.

For further diversion, prior to the meal, I performed the shortened forms of Chen (original form, crouching) Tai Chi and straight swords that I have been studying assiduously with a master in Vancouver for the last dozen years.

On the morning of the 11th, some visitors came to my home to view my father’s collection of modern and contemporary ink, which is strongest in the 5th Moon Group. This was followed by lunch at Pat & David’s home nearby. Painting by Tai Xiangzhou of Beijing.

In the afternoon, we attended the Public Symposium – Prof. Chu-tsing Li and his Chinese Art Historical Legacy – at CU-Boulder organized by Pat Graham and Stephanie Su. I introduced my father concentrating on his serendipitous forks in the road e.g. John Rosenfield handing off his TA Oriental Art Course to my father that diverted him from Northern Baroque art, and Wen Fong organizing a seminar on Yuan painting just for him during my father’s sabbatical, and meeting Liu Guosong in Taipei in February 1964. Janet Baker highlighted several artists shown in the traveling exhibition of my father’s collection in 2007-09. Stephanie challenged us with the varied timeframes used to define ‘modern’ Chinese art. An-yi detailed the rich ferment of artistic movements in Taiwan from the 1930s to 1960s. I discussed several phases of development of Hong Xian’s (Margaret Chang, the main woman in the 5th Moon group) organic ink paintings, and her upcoming solo retrospective at the Asia Society Texas next April. Arnold reminisced about his time as a CU alumnus and his many interactions with my father. Hong, who was still recovering, had originally planned to do a live demonstration of her art on paper and silk at the symposium, but instead via Zoom, introduced us to her recently exhibited works including one at the Nelson-Atkins Gallery. Lastly, Fong now 90+ and still painting daily, participated via Zoom in a dialogue with An-yi Pan (who swiftly translated his remarks in Chinese), about the 5th Moon Group during the 1950s. Mr. Fong (90+ and still painting daily) is shown speaking to us.

Dinner was held at the Dushanbe Teahouse, a unique venue designed and constructed by Tajikistan artisans and craftsmen.

On 12th, the group had home gallery tour of the Prof. Chu-tsing Li collection and my new additions. Perhaps unbeknownst to many, over the past eight years, as a steward of his collection, I became a hobbyist collector and decided to extend his abstract ink art collection into the 21st century. My newly-acquired works include those by women: Hong Xian (5th Moon Group, Pu Xinyu’s last student), Li Chingman (Vancouver, Lui Shou-kwan’s student), Bingyi (Beijing, Dick Barnhart’s last graduate student), the afore-mentioned Hong Zhang, and men: Wang Dongling (best known for his "mad" cursive script calligraphy), Wang Tiande (known for his multilayered, ‘burned’ landscapes), Tai Xiangzhou (paints grand, primordial cosmoscapes), and Zheng Chongbin (specializes in paintings that are earthscape collages). I have been fortunate to visit most of their studios to learn more about their inspiration and process. Once again, the group insights were so helpful as, in one example, one of the group noted tarashikomi (wet on wet) strokes in Hong Xian (Margaret Chang) paintings. One of Margaret's masterworks a diptych "Floating without end" reflecting her neverending travels within China, the US and back to Hong Kong is shown below.

In the afternoon, we took a 5.3-mile hike at 8200 feet at the Walker Ranch Myers Homestead Trail in the foothills above Boulder where we caught views of quaking aspen turning fluorescent gold.

Dinner was outside at the popular, informal Acreage restaurant in Lafayette, a cider/beer venue atop a hill with a commanding view of the Rockies at sunset.

On the 13th, the few stragglers who were not flying home were led by David and Pat on a less taxing downhill hike in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Many, many rich conversations on a myriad of topics took place at meals and on hikes. The experience, although exhausting, was so enjoyable, both inside the museums, home gallery and symposium with so much to digest visually, and, outside with robust verbal exchange amidst the omnipresent, grand Rockies, what could be more invigorating!

An-yi Pan suggested we gather again in two years time!!!

Sunshine Coast, BC to Mile 0, Highway 101

I was taken on a road trip to the appropriately monikered Sunshine Coast as ‘payback’ for our extended NM/TX road trip last April. Cora was surprised I had seen so little of British Columbia as I usually dedicate my Vancouver stay to Chen Tai Chi 2.5 hours a day 6 days a week. Two car ferries plus in between winding driving eventually led us to Lund, the northern-most point (and last harbor) of Highway 101 that extends south to Chile. As we returned from dinner, we sighted a black bear scampering away a few feet from our airBnB. In Lund, we rode the water taxi to Savary Island completely surrounded by beautiful sandy beaches and temperate clear waters (one of few such islands) but clearly unwelcoming to day tourists: ‘no public toilets’ and ‘only walk on the beach, not into neighborhoods’. The beach was littered with clams and Japanese oysters, some still live, and the highlight was observing the marvelous mudflat snails leaving a roadmap of their slow-paced trails.

We joined up with Cora’s friends and timed our hike precisely to Skookumchuck Narrows South Point to coincide with the tide-induced waves as the feeders converge in this natural funnel. The giant cedars and firs reached the sky and lush moss and fern formed a carpet were cathedral worthy and mushrooms (lobster) accented the pews of logs. The usual endpoint is to watch kayakers ride the waves in reverse, staying in place instead of going with the flow. In the distance, we spotted a school of 20 or so porpoises feeding frenetically and jumping playfully! We learned that this was a rare sighting – none of our local hosts or other hikers had ever seen them there. A second group migrated to the tidal waves just in front of us and began surfing and jumping – what a thrilling sighting.

We moved to the friend’s house some 50 feet above French Cove which borders on Smuggler’s Cove Provincial Park. As the name implies, not only contraband liquor but disemployed Chinese railroad workers were transported to the US. Of course, it is a well-protected, bucolic cove today with abundant beaver activity. The hike along the Cove and the Georgia Straits shoreline was rocky ending upon boulders, the air fresh and humidified, the water clear and cold, and nearby islands sprinkled along the coastline. Trudging carefully down to the water’s edge, we took kayaks out of the Cove to nearby islands. Some 50 harbor seals were basking in the late afternoon sun, braying and diving. A heron, a gaggle of cormorants, and a red-billed oyster catcher were active on another island. Our host told us the story of taking his granddaughter out for the first time in the exact spot, when a huge orca swam right beneath her. I could do without that heart-stopping encounter.

An unforgettable sojourn to BC’s Sunshine Coast.

Ben with White Coats at the White House

Ben was at the White House with colleagues who are working on gun violence prevention on June 7th, National Gun Violence Prevention Day.

Teri reappears

Teri reappeared, fleetingly on film and in print last week, I believe to say ‘hi, remember me?’.

She was ‘captured’ on film at a protest in NYC in 1971 by Corky Lee, the photojournalist. Lois, Becky, Teri, and Corky were active and frequented Chinatown-focused protests. Becky alerted me to the documentary (Photographic Justice) on Corky’s life showing on PBS during May, Asian American heritage month. After recognizing Becky in one frame, I began to look fastidiously whether Teri might be also be pictured … and lo and behold, there she was barely visible a few frames later. Wow! Serendipity interceded as her face in the left side could easily have been missed in the few seconds the photo flashed by. It was meant to B.

Teri and family were first-generation immigrants, she born in Chongqing, the wartime (WWII) capital of China. At 10 months of age, the family (four sibs and one cousin) escaped to Macao, then moved to Hong Kong, then to Taipei, finally at age 7 to NYC, with the ‘uniting family’ help of her eldest half-sister Eleanor. She started public school without a word of English to her name. They lived on the 5th floor (no elevator) on Madison St in Chinatown, the bathtub in the middle of the kitchen serving as kitchen counter when not in use. Besides the repeated moves, comedown from a servant-run household, now reliant on her mother piecework jewelry, they survived, and even temporarily housed other friends in similar need.

Their family’s border crossing from China to Macao in 1950 was harrowing. Her father had left separately to avoid raising suspicion of their intended escape. On the pretext of visiting a relative, her mother took her five children (Teri the infant) and one cousin by herself. Taking cash was illegal, so her mother sewed American bills into the children’s padded jackets. At THE critical moment, the border guard opened Teri’s can of powdered milk where her mother had stashed a large roll of cash underneath. She then told the guard that her husband knew a senior officer in the Chinese customs bureau. The guard then closed the can and let them cross over to freedom. She never knew whether he actually saw the money or not, but assumed that he was dissuaded from taking action by her ‘connections’. Thus, catastrophic life-changing consequences were avoided by her mother's quick thinking.

Teri was raised as a Catholic and received a scholarship to attend Cathedral High School in NYC. Her main extracurricular activities were centered around Church and volunteering with developmentally-delayed kids. At age 18, she wanted to become a nun fully committed to the Church, and, after her penultimate interviews, she was rejected. No reason given. In my view, she was too independent and rebellious for the cloistered life. I thank the interviewers for their wisdom! Her parents forbade her to date or marry ‘outside’ the ethnicity with the threat of disownment. She would simply … quietly date whomever she pleased. In college, she began to participate in social action and protests related to Chinatown and the Vietnam War. From early on, she had a strong sense of mission, of greater purpose, and proactively supporting causes she believed in.

Teri worked two jobs to support me through medical school allowing us to become financially fully independent of our parents, and, I ended up with a mere 2K of educational debt. She completed two Montessori certifications, ushered Rachel and Ben in live, molded her work schedule to accommodate their needs, whether teaching or working at a children’s bookstore.

As they became more independent, she joined the Columbus International Program, we hosted participants from China, Japan, Russia, Ghana, Cameroon, Mexico, Germany, Norway one month at a time – eventually elected president. Since she missed her progressive Asian American friends from NYC, she began the Asian Womyn’s Book Club. Note the spelling – she didn’t want to be an ‘appendage’ of men. I asked her once if she was a ‘feminist’, which she clearly was, she said simply, I’m a ‘humanist’. She took the kids on Meals-on-Wheels, Christmas gifting and food pantries forays – continuing by herself. She served on the ministerial search committee (Unitarian), volunteered for Barack, put Planned Parenthood stickers on our bumper … you get the full picture.

This brings us back to the glimpse of Teri, in a photograph I’ve never seen, at a protest as 21-year-old on the cusp of our future life together. The same spirit of being involved and standing up for what she felt was right never left her. Yet where the spirit originated, from her immigrant experiences, the Church, her core self, I'm not certain ... The image reminds me of who she was always was, before me and after me.

Teri, Corky Lee and his photographic record of Asian America

I had a long phone conversation today with Teri’s close friend Becky from NJ who had been a fellow activist in NYC over 50 years ago. She unfortunately lost her husband to cancer two years ago.

Always up to date on all things Asian American, Becky told me that a new PBS documentary was showing now during Asian American Heritage Month entitled Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story. It is a moving account of Corky’s 50-year ‘hobby’ documenting Asian American history and injustices (housing, anti-Asian racism) in NYC. He was omnipresent – a word that rings completely apt – at all important Asian American events whether they be cultural, social or political in nature, whether Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean … documenting, documenting, documenting.

Corky’s most iconic image is a 2014 re-creation of the meeting of East and West railroads at Promontory Point, Utah in 1869. Somehow, not a single Chinese laborer (some 12,000) appeared in the historic celebratory photograph of the transcontinental linking. Nearly 150 years later, to restore the proper historical perspective, he gathered Chinese-American descendants of those railroad builders and photographed them at the same point – an image indelibly stored at the Smithsonian. But that was only one of his 800,000 images, mostly of Asian Americans.

A self-taught photographer, Corky was called the ‘Asian American photographer laureate’ and his work was recently recognized with a series of shows of his community-based, justice-focused photographic record. Still active to the last, he probably contracted COVID during another documentary effort of a protest of anti-Asian hate crimes while masked, and succumbed in January 2021. Corky’s obituary appeared in the New Yorker Magazine. This documentary chronicles his Chinatown roots, his tireless and humble approach to photography, and his courageous and principled soul.

Teri was a good friend of Corky’s as they both went to Queens College and Corky founded the Asian American students’ club there. After Corky graduated, he asked Lois, Teri’s close college classmate, to take over the lead. The three often attended the same demonstrations in Chinatown. After Teri and I met in 1971, we spent time together in NYC at Asian American gatherings and she introduced me to Corky, when he was already beginning his photographic journey.

In the documentary, in the still image at 9:32, Becky appears in the middle with her glasses. I was stunned to see Teri in the still image at 9:42 in the left lower corner, at a demonstration in 1971.

Teri's small part in Corky’s indelible historical record!

I just learned that that picture appeared in the May 19th NY Times Sunday Book Review .

Unexpectedly traipsing in my father’s footsteps

Completely consumed by his research and maximizing ‘field work’, our ‘father-son’ outings consisted of innumerable museums in contrast to my peers who shared paternal fishing, camping, boy scouts, and playing ball. At age of 10, I rebelled and refused to set foot in the Boston Fine Arts Museum one more time (every Sunday) … they allowed me to stand across the street alone to watch my preferred football. Early on, with such overexposure, I became inoculated against museums. Perhaps an unsurprising oppositional start for an art historian’s son.

As the vaccination wore thin, I took one course in Chinese art history taught by my father’s former student Yoshi Shimizu, and fleetingly considered such a path. On our travels, Teri and I enjoyed visiting the Chicago Art Institute, the Met, the Freer, MoMA, Asian Art Museum, East Wing, Tate Modern, the Palace Museum … as tourists. Whenever we returned to my parents’ home, I would see a new painting, inquire and engage my father about the artist. Chinese art and artists were one constant he would freely share with me. I began to appreciate the gestalt of knowing artists, their background, their techniques, their development behind that painting.

I distinctly remember one day when Teri thanked my father profusely for bringing such beauty into our lives! This thoughtful gesture made me realize that I had taken the encircling artwork for granted. As my father devolved into dementia, I became the steward, donating paintings to museums (as he directed), properly storing the remaining collection, and sorting and donating his papers to Taiwan National University (as he wished). This labor gradually progressed from necessity to deep respect and even love. I asked him to teach me, alas his mind had slipped too far, despite momentary accurate recollections. In the end, my father’s prescient appreciation of abstract ink and relentless efforts to promote the artists forged a legacy that ineffably binds us. Never too late.

My friend Don, an artist, 6 or 7 years ago, told me prophetically that I would become involved with art. I just laughed at the thought. I wish my father and Don could witness this unexpected passion and its ensuing paths. Where have they led?

I have become a regular at Asia Week in NYC visiting galleries and museums in search of contemporary ink art, even adding to my father’s collection. This interest segued into aquaintances, even friendships, with Chinese art historians and curators (including my father’s now retiring former students), art dealers, collectors, and, most importantly, artists. To be invited into their studios has enabled my deeper appreciation of their artistic evolution of which one painting represents but a single timepoint. Together with Margaret Chang (Hung Hsien), my art godmother, we visited the Freer Gallery (Smithsonian) storage to view the Bada Shanren collection of Chan (original Chinese zen) paintings and Chao Mengfu’s ‘Sheep and Goat’ on which my father wrote a monograph. What a reprise to view a late Yuan (1200’s) painting from inches, just as he once did. Recognizing Margaret Chang’s neglected legacy as the only woman in the avant garde 5th Moon group (Taiwan 1960s and 1970s), I began to take an oral history from her 2-3 hours a week during COVID. This led to my first invited art talk to the UW-Milwaukee art history department on Margaret’s artistic career. This in turn fueled my efforts towards initiating a belated solo, retrospective show of her life’s work. With the help of three curators, this is taking place in April 2025!

And when you come to visit my new townhouse in Colorado, you will see a gallery (also Tai Chi studio) paying homage to my father's impact on contemporary Chinese ink paintings.

This art full-circle has connected me to my father, my Chinese culture, my Asian-American identity, and to a budding aesthetic self replete with immense learning, mindful enjoyment and profound meaning.

Who woulda thoughta?

Last year, this spring

Well, I missed my X-mas, New Year’s, Chinese New Year’s, Leap Day and Eclipse Day deadlines for my annual 2023 summary. Here we are one-third into 2024, so a short summary of both. Still alive.

In many respects, a somatic year to forget. Four major health hurdles, including COVID inopportunely contracted in Canada that lead to quarantining and delayed return to the US. These obstacles necessitated multiple Emergency visits, three surgical procedures and two with long-term implications. Certainly humbling, both physically and cerebrally. Naturally, these challenges induced serious musings about my mortality and legacy.

Of course, many good things happened in between.

I was surprisingly asked to give nine invited talks in Portland, SF, Columbus (X2), Austin, San Diego, and Milwaukee, which I suspect will decline precipitously forthwith (including one on cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome – pot reveals it violent vomiting self!). As a result, I visited the Japanese garden in Portland, saw one of Margaret Chang’s painting (see below) at Portland Art Museum storage, learned from headache neurologists, had dinner with niece Jeanine, attended the annual Koslov's Thanksgiving extravaganza, gathered MCW colleagues and Milwaukee friends, and watched my mentee's high school girls BB phenom.

And despite four cancelled trips, my peripatetic path persisted. Tony, Martha and I chased cherry blossoms in Japan, which came two weeks early, yet managed to capture its full bloom at Oshinohakkai at the base of Mt. Fuji. With g’kidz Jack and Naomi, Glacier yielded the most spectacular reconnoiter with the King of the Mountain goats. My annual Vancouver Chen Tai Chi boot camp 2½ hours a day. And X-mas in Vail with Rachel’s family, downhill for them, flatland for me.

2024 has been rebooted, so far, so good. Marianne and Mark (off/on) came from Hilo for a sabbatical at Colorado U. (physics/education). During her 2½ month stay, we had stimulating discussions on race and identity (does anti-Asian racism exist in HI?), educational strategies in STEM, and the universe (black holes). Then, with Cora and Kathryn from Vancouver, we embarked on a 3,000 mile art road trip to west Texas, chasing minimalists Agnes Martin, Donald Judd (in Marfa), Mark Rothko (Chapel), Georgia O’Keeffe (Santa Fe, Abiquiu, Ghost Ranch), and Ruth Asawa (Houston) – with many other museums in between. To this group, I added artists Xu Bing (Houston exhibition), Ren Light Pan (shown in Dallas) and Margaret Chang (Houston). Carlsbad Caverns. A thrilling montage betwixt nature, natural inspiration (Georgia O’Keeffe clouds), minimalism, abstract expressionism … Viewing the artists’ studios as well as the breadth and evolution of their art provided a much more profound appreciation of their entire vision than viewing an individual work in a museum as is the usual case.

One major milestone for Margaret Chang (Hong Xian) an artist whom my father and mother were close to, collecting her work, writing catalog introductions and traveling together. I have also become close to her and avuncular husband TC, traveling together to view art (play tennis) together. Margaret was the only woman in the mid-century avant garde abstract ink painting 5th Moon Group in Taiwan but has sadly been forgotten. What makes her unique amongst her abstract ink peers is that she retains the fine brushwork learned from Pu Xinyu (emperor’s first cousin and top classical painting teacher in TW) while expressing her unique landscapes of the mind full of Zen ('negative') space and flowing motion. Despite having no curatorial clout, I have been pushing for a solo retrospective of her career and as of two weeks ago, it is now official. With a consortium of curators from Denver (Art Museum), San Diego (independent) and Houston (Asia Society), her retrospective will take place in Houston, April 2025! This long overdue exhibition is at last happening!