Sanyu, the line at work

Catalogue of the exhibition Sanyu, the line at work, presented at the Musée départemental des arts asiatiques in Nice (15 February - 15 June 2025).

Born in China in 1895, Sanyu arrived in Paris in the wake of the Great War, following in the footsteps of the first artists who had come from Asia to learn the techniques of Western art.

Instead of the academic tradition of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the young man preferred the creative freedom of the Grande Chaumière studios, in the cosmopolitan and euphoric Montparnasse of the Roaring Twenties. There he rubbed shoulders with the artistic avant-garde and was introduced to the formal research of European art, while remaining faithful to his own cultural heritage.

His drawings quickly attracted the interest of his peers, who were fascinated by his supple lines, which convey all the richness and complexity of the Chinese calligraphic and pictorial tradition. Forgotten after his death in 1966, Sanyu has only recently been rediscovered. He is now regarded in China and Taiwan as one of the masters of modern ink painting.

Contents

INTRODUCTION
Sanyu in a nutshell
Adrien Bossard

Mastery of line: Sanyu's drawings and engravings
Rita Wong

Sanyu or the praise of women
Jean-Paul Desroches

Metamorphoses of the female nude in Sanyu
David Pujos

ENCART
The Chinese Matisse?
David Pujos

‘San-yu, the Chinese painter of Montparnasse, paints neither in French nor in Chinese’.
Francesca Dal Lago

ENCART
Trajectories of the portrait and the nude by three Chinese artists in Paris
Claire Bettinelli

General bibliography

English texts