Ting Yin Yung

For a long time only slightly noticed, modernist movements in Chinese art history are gaining more and more recognition. One of its key fi gures is Ting Yin Yung, whose art is essential to understanding Western-style art in China. Ting was one of the fi rst to turn to his own cultural history to inform the Western-style paintings he and others aspired to master, primarily to breathe life into what many considered a stagnant art tradition. It is diffi cult to gauge the full extent of Ting's impact and infl uence on modern and contemporary Chinese art, but this comprehensive catalogue raisonné of his oil paintings brings us in a position to see how his vision, through both his art and his teachings, inspired and nurtured many.

TING YIN YUNG (1902-1978) was born and raised in the province of Guangdong, regarded as the hub of the Chinese revolution and at the forefront of progressive political thought. He was one of the earliest artists to advocate going beyond fusing East and West and infusing Western-style Chinese oil paintings with elements drawn directly from Chinese traditions to achieve a unique language, satisfying the needs of a modernized Chinese art and, indeed, of a nation striving to be contemporary.