GU TINGLONG (1904-1998)
Calligraphy Collections
Two hanging scrolls, ink on paper
1. One measures 92 x 46.8 cm. (36 ¹⁄₄ x 18 ³⁄₈ in.)
Inscribed and signed, with two seals of the artist
Dated dingmao year (1987)
Dedicated to Yuming (I.M. Pei)
Titleslip inscribed by Chen Congzhou (1918-2000)

NOTE:
Chen Congzhou, formerly known as Yuwen, and was later known as Ziweng, was a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. He was an expert in ancient Chinese architecture and gardens. Chen was also proficient in literature and history. As a disciple of Zhang Daqian, he specialised in landscapes, figures and flowers. Chen played an important tole in the preservation and development of ancient Chinese gardens. He was a close friend of Mr I.M Pei.


2. One measures 68 x 33.5 cm. (26 ³⁄₄ x 13 ¹⁄₄ in.)
Inscribed and signed, with three seals of the artist
Dated third day of third month, xinyou year (1981)
Dedicated to Yuming (I.M. Pei)

NOTE:
A native of Suzhou, Gu Tinglong was a prominent expert on Chinese ancient book editions, former curator of the Shanghai Library, bibliographer, and calligrapher. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, Gu established a private library so as to preserve ancient volumes from destruction by Japanese aggressors.

I.M. Pei was one of the century’s most influential and respected architects. Internationally renowned for his iconic glass pyramid at the entrance to the Louvre Museum in Paris, he designed over 100 buildings around the world, ranging from large-scale corporate headquarters to smaller, more intimately scaled dwellings. Emerging from the Modernist tradition, Pei’s work evinced an intelligent combination of the cutting-edge and the conservative. He rigorously crafted buildings remembered for their crisp forms, luminous interiors and elegant materials designed to engage and please the public. He became one of the few architects whose inventiveness and erudition appealed equally to real estate developers, corporate chairmen and museum boards. In addition to his project for the Louvre, Pei is well known for the National Gallery of Art’s East Building in Washington, D.C. (1978), the Bank of China Building in Hong Kong (1989), the Miho Museum in Shigaraki, Shiga, Japan (1997), and one of his last cultural projects, the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar (2008).
Integral to an understanding of I.M. Pei and his stature on the stage of international architecture is a fascinating art collection that Pei and his wife Eileen had quietly assembled during their 72-year marriage. It is a unique collection that speaks not only to the sophisticated breadth of their interests in both Eastern and Western artistic traditions, but also to the deep friendships they forged with artists in their milieu. Artists such as Barnett Newman, Jean Dubuffet, Zao Wou-Ki, Henry Moore and Isamu Noguchi, many of whom epitomised the major movements of post-war and contemporary art history, and whose bold and assertive works are represented in the collection, were personal friends with whom the Peis maintained longstanding and warm relationships. As such, The Collection of Eileen and I.M. Pei is an intensely personal collaboration reflective of the couple’s shared vision and brilliant insight, their artistic circle and an aesthetic sensibility that celebrated a culture of creativity.