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Book of Chen Chi paintings, some titles incl "On a Tightrope", "The Bowery, New York", "Spring", "Summer", "Autumn", "Winter", "Playing a Violin", "a Thread of Fire", "On The Stage", "The Canon of Tranquil Peace", etc., approx. 15.5" x 22.5". Bio from AskArt: Chen Chi (1912 - 2005) name means "journey achieved,". A painter with the mind of a philosopher and the soul of a poet. Primarily a landscapist and, above all, a watercolorist, there is in his work a sensitivity and reverence for nature that has only deepened since his early training in China. Chen Chi's "On a Tightrope" could well represent the artist himself. The Eastern "Master" is called so because he is first a man of virtue and his works are admired not only for their aesthetic value but for their virtuous character as well. Chi, the man "on a tightrope," hovering over East and West, feels that he never lost his balance, convinced today that he has successfully avoided the label of either by merging the two distinct influences in his art. This balancing between cultures seems to be reflected not only in Chi's approach to watercolor painting but also in his ability to thread a path between objective and non-objective work. Never totally figurative nor abstract, Chi's subjects, often Western, are thoroughly transformed by an Eastern turn of mind. His landscapes often with a figure or two unobtrusively included are less replications of a particular scene than distilled generalizations of a locale or motif. One must admit that for Chen Chi, this has been a highly successful approach. Not only has he exhibited in a great many group- and one-person shows in the great cities of both the United States and Asia, but he has long been gathering honors along the way. Among his gold medals and awards from many national annual exhibitions in the US are the 1955 American Watercolor Society's Special Award for the Watercolor of the Year, the American Watercolor Society's 99th Annual Grand Award with Gold Medal of Honor in 1966, the National Academy of Design's Samuel Finley Breese Morse Medal and Saltus Gold Medal of Merit, the American Watercolor Society's Bicentennial Gold Medal in 1976, the Artist's Fellowship's Benjamin West Clinedinst Medal in 1976, the Gold Medal from the National Arts Club, and the Medal of Honor in 1988 from the National Museum of History, Taiwan, Republic of China. Chen Chi's works are included in the collections of most of the major museums in the country as well as in the collections of universities, foundations, corporations and private individuals. He is a member of the National Academy of Design, the Century Association, the American Watercolor Society and the National Arts Club.
