“Girls Reading,” Edmund C. Tarbell, 1907. Shein collection.

A Minimal Vision:

NEW YORK CITY – Chambers Fine Art, 210 11th Avenue, will exhibit “A Minimal Vision: Furniture with Paintings by Yun Gee.”

In this exhibition there is a dialogue between Chinese furniture of the Ming (1369-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties and the remarkable paintings of Gee (1906-1963).

In recent years knowledge of the full range of Chinese furniture has grown enormously. Research into regional variations and vernacular styles has revealed a wealth of material hitherto barely known outside China and not seriously regarded even in the country of its birth.

The emphasis in the current exhibition is on Chinese furniture at its most unadorned, notable for the clarity of its forms and structure. For example, a Seventeenth Century bookshelf in which the relationship between the four supporting columns and the four rectangular panels is left completely exposed appeals to those whose taste has been formed by the minimalist aesthetic. The bold forms of the tables, chairs, benches and cabinets will have a particular appeal.

Gee was born in Guangdong province in 1906 but left China in 1921 to join his father in San Francisco. As described by Robert E. Harrist, Jr., he was “a restlessly inventive painter, sculptor, poet, and performer [who] held one-man shows in San Francisco, exhibited in Paris galleries, and gave classes in ‘new Cubism’ in his Greenwich Village apartment – all before reaching the age of thirty.”

According to the gallery, the works are notable for their intuitive understanding of the Cubist idiom and for their brilliant coloration. They were painted between 1926 and 1933 in San Francisco, Paris and New York. Included are self-portraits, figure-studies and three studies for the “Last Supper.” This is the first exhibition in New York of Gee’s work since 1983.

For information, 212-414-1169.