Chances are you’ve never heard of Sanyu. The Chinese-born artist spent much of his life in Paris, where he rubbed shoulders with avant-garde luminaries and died, lonely and poverty-stricken, in 1966. For decades he remained virtually unknown, an art-historical footnote at best.
Today, he has been dubbed the “Chinese Matisse.” Nine of his works have sold for more than $20 million at auction, with his record almost double that. He has become a market juggernaut despite the fact that, until now, few books in English even mention his name. A new two-volume publication by Rita Wong, comprising a biography and a catalogue raisonné of his oil paintings, aims to address this omission and cement his place in the canon.
