Continuing through August 31, 2014
“The Lure of Chinatown: Painting California’s Chinese Communities” includes a compelling mix of styles, including impressionism, American Scene Painting and even Chinese landscape painting. Featuring watercolors and oils from San Francisco and Los Angeles Chinatowns, 1885 to 2007, the exhibition has a glamorous aura imparted by the subject matter, both real and imagined, of ethnic Chinese settings and maidens in traditional clothing. These include “San Francisco Chinese Maiden” by Theodore Wores depicting a young girl in flowing Chinese attire, and “Chinese New Year Celebratory Revelry, San Francisco” by Henry Nappenbach. A few works reveal an ethnic history and a show more complex than a cursory look reveals. The Chinese in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were cloistered, exploited for their labor and subjected to harsh political sentiment. Several works, particularly of Los Angeles Chinatown in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, reveal the grim quality of life of the immigrants.
These paintings include “Calle de Los Negros (Chinatown, Los Angeles)”, by Alexander Francis Harmer, “In Chinatown, L.A.” and “Morning in the Alley,” the latter two by Martin Jacob Jackson. Of special interest is “Forbidden City Night Club, San Francisco,” 1938, by Jade Fon Woo, of a nude UC Berkeley student doing a fan dance for male Caucasian admirers. For the historically minded, the show provides an engaging, illustrated timeline from 1787 to 1975. In addition to details about the artists in the show, and the places depicted in the paintings, there is historical/political information balancing this primarily exotic-appearing exhibition. One panel in the timeline reads: “1882: After years of increasing racial tensions, the Chinese Exclusion Act is pushed through Congress. The act prevents Chinese immigrants from entering the U.S. to seek work and denies Chinese the opportunity for naturalization. Initially meant to stay in place for ten years, the act is later renewed indefinitely.”
Published courtesy of ArtSceneCal ©2014
