CHEN QIKUAN (CHEN CHI-KWAN, 1921-2007)
Roosters (Anxious)
Scroll, mounted and framed, ink on paper
23 ⁵⁄₈ x 9 ¹⁄₂ in. (60 x 24 cm.)
Inscribed by the artist, with one seal
Dated 1953

Born in 1921, Chen Qikuan graduated from the National Central University in Nanjing in 1944. He then moved to the United States, where he worked under Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius in 1951 and served as lecturer of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his time in the United States, Chen held numerous exhibitions in Boston and New York. Chen was a renowned painter as well as architect, and had previously worked with I. M. Pei on the design of the campus of Tunghai University in Taiwan.

Benefiting from his practice and inspiration from architecture, design, and painting, Chen’s works exude a strong aesthetic through incorporating oriental elements in buildings and craftsmanship. With an emphasis on balance and equilibrium, he applied elegant lines and shapes to construct his compositions. Chen’s ability to connect nature and architecture, as well as objects and landscape, result in captivating images that provide viewers with much room for imagination.

Mary Griggs Burke (1916-2012).
The Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.