Biography from Kingsley Art Auction
George Chann was born in Mainland China in 1913. George Chann left for the United States at the age of twelve. In 1940, he held his first solo exhibition in Los Angeles.
Between 1947 and 1949, George Chann returned to China and had a museum exhibition in Shanghai. After returning to the United States in 1950, his painting style changed dramatically when he began to study abstract painting. His abstract painting has been shown at various museums in the United States.
To analyze George Chann’s painting, there are two phases – social realism and abstract expressionism, and are clearly divided by 1950s. Moreover, abstract expressionism contains 2/3 of his whole creating career. Interestingly it is, the two contradicted painting styles happen to represent classic and modernity of Western art.
Although this correspondence shows that George Chann received complete training of Western art, it does not equal to wholly Westernization of his creation viewpoint. The key reason lies in what always kept inside his heart: the identity of being a Chinese.
