Rago Auctions

Chinese-American artist George Chann was born in 1913 in the Chung-shan village in Canton (now Guangzhou). After completing high school in China, Chann moved with his father, who was an herbalist, to San Francisco. Showing an early talent for painting, Chann was offered a full scholarship to attend the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles and he later taught there as well. In terms of subject matter, Chann gravitated toward composing traditional landscapes and portraiture initially.

In 1947, Chann returned to China to visit his mother while Communism was on the rise and expanding its reach within the country. Chann observed many refugees and poor citizens, whom he rendered through his art. He stayed abroad for a few years, living mostly in Hong Kong, where he helped operate a photography store. Chann met his future wife in Shanghai and they married in Hong Kong in 1949, before returning to San Francisco as they expected the birth of their daughter. Chann taught at the San Francisco Institute of Art for a year before relocating his family to Los Angeles' West Hollywood neighborhood, which included several art galleries. Once he built relationships through the local art scene, Chann began showing his work at the Ankrum Gallery while running a gift shop at the Farmers Market.

Chann's style evolved to integrate the influence of Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s. Still moved by what he had witnessed in Communist China, Chann felt compelled to portray the pastoral landscapes, waterways, and fishermen of his homeland, although he did so in a less clearly representational way. Likewise, Chann became more religious as he undertook Bible study, so there was an added religious dimension to his artwork. He was also constantly practicing Chinese calligraphy and his richly defined brushstrokes are suggestive of this. Later in his career, Chann produced a series of works in which he elaborated stylized Chinese characters, albeit in an abstract mode.

Given his personal and artistic journey, Chann was uniquely positioned to bridge the worlds of Eastern and Western art. His mature, highly textured paintings represent an impressive fusion of aesthetic concerns and techniques. While Chann exhibited much less often during the final phase of his artistic career, fifty of his works were part of an extended exhibit at the Pasadena Fine Arts Museum from 1969 through 1973. Today paintings by Chann are included in the collections of various museums, such as the Shanghai Art Museum, the San Diego Museum of Art, and elsewhere. Since his passing in 1995, collectors have become increasingly enamored with Chann's work and his paintings regularly achieve strong prices at auction.