Hon-Chew Hee (1906-1993) Three Artists (John Chin Young, Pablo Picasso, and Self-Portrait) 36 1/...

Hon-Chew Hee (1906-1993) Three Artists (John Chin Young, Pablo Picasso, and Self-Portrait) signed and dated 'H.C. Hee '76' (lower right) oil on canvas 36 1/4 x 44 1/8 in. (92.1 x 112.1 cm) Painted in 1976. Footnotes: Provenance Private collection, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. We wish to thank Christina May Ho for her kind assistance with cataloguing the lot. Three Artists by Hon-Chew Hee is an important work not only for its unique synthesis of French Cubist technique with Chinese-Hawaiian cultural references, but also for positioning Hawaiian artists within a dominant art historical narrative. Hee presents the three artists as interlocked and occupying the same pictorial plane; and in this way, projects them as on equal footing. Hon-Chew Hee was born auspiciously on the Lunar New Year's Eve in 1906 on the island of Maui. He was very close to his Chinese heritage, growing up between Guangdong Province in China and Hawaiʻi. Hee was the second oldest son of Jackson Hee, a prominent educator in China who was the magistrate of four districts and head of the Canton library. His father was also a private school instructor on Hawaiʻi, Maui and Kauaʻi, and the founder of a Chinese language school in Honolulu in 1911. 1 Hee was trained in traditional Chinese painting as a child and learned illusionistic painting as a teenager at the Royal School in Honolulu. His artistic talent was so well-recognized at the school that his paintings remained on view even after his graduation in 1927. 2 He continued art-making as a young adult, attracting the attention of Maui-born writer Armine Von Tempski. In June 1931, he was awarded a scholarship to the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco to further his study. 3 Over that year, he trained under notable California artists Ralph Stackpole, Otis Oldfield, and Ray Boynton. 4 Hee taught and studied art in Guangzhou for a year before returning to Honolulu in November 1933. 5 He continued to exhibit and teach in both Western and Eastern styles of painting, including at the Nuʻuanu YMCA with his contemporary Isami Doi. Hee taught at the YMCA during the war and was concurrently employed at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, producing signage and art for various relief efforts. The late 1940s were an important period in Hee's artistic development. In 1948, Hee studied at the Art Students League of New York under George Grosz, Frank Dumond, Jon Corbino, and other distinguished American and European modernists. He also spent the summer of 1949 at the Woodstock artist colony, known for being an enclave for ASL artists including the Japanese-American painter Yasuo Kuniyoshi. In September 1949, Hee sailed to France for the first time to study with Fernand Léger and André Lhote at their private ateliers, as well as the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and the Académie Colarossi. 6 Hee's work was greatly influenced by this Parisian period, incorporating Léger's compositional dynamism and Lhote's Fauvist use of color into his work for the rest of his career. Hee (shown at far right) is depicted in the present work wearing what appears to be a patchwork palaka (Hawaiian plaid) jacket. The wild mix of palaka—originally a durable worker's fabric—can be seen as a nod to Hawaii's history of exchange as well as his colorful and gregarious nature. Pablo Picasso (shown at center) is depicted in what appears to be a Native Hawaiian gourd helmet with narrow strips of cloth that resemble a beard. This feature evokes the historical engraving—A Man of the Sandwich Islands, in a Mask (1779) by Captain James Cook's artist John Webber—which influenced how Europeans saw Native Hawaiians for the first time. The helmet on Picasso, then, can be seen as a symbol for discovery and tribal identification. In this way, it can be argued that Hee identifies Picasso as a source of knowledge and 'one of their own' sharing an artistic lineage. In a 1974 interview, Hee noted, 'I like Picasso. Picasso is a thinker. Today we are more into art-thinking processes and not so much in the direction of technique. I teach my students to think and I grade them by their thinking. I believe Cézanne is the greatest of those in the early Impressionist movement turning into abstraction. Many Chinese artists moved in that direction too. They did not copy, they did a lot of great thinking. For instance, the great ones have known that background is not one thing and foreground another, but that these are completely interdependent.' 7 John Chin Young (shown at far left) was a close friend and exhibitor with Hee since the 1930s. Like Hee, Young studied Chinese calligraphy extensively and modern European art in Paris for three years. He is depicted holding an ink brush in a Chinese conical hat with plumeria, looking upon a musical instrument that incorporates elements of a ukulele and erhu. Just as space becomes pattern in the present work, words become image. By presenting a Chinese phrase in high visual contrast, Hee calls attention to it, inviting viewers to read for meaning while simultaneously referencing the tradition of Chinese calligraphy. The Chinese inscription is a compounded design comprised of three characters—黃金萬—(huáng jīn wàn), which literally translates to 'yellow gold ten-thousand' but poetically to 'May the coins be countless'. This saying emphasizes wealth and abundance and carries a traditional association with happiness and good fortune. 'Huáng jīn wàn' also has an association with communal Chinese food culture as well as the Lunar New Year. In this way, the simple inclusion of this expression carries a much larger connotation of a shared heritage, vision, and aspiration. Hee accomplished this masterful work at the age of 70, four decades after he exhibited in a dedicated self-portrait exhibition at the Honolulu Academy of Arts in 1934. Three Artists reflects a worldly view and psychological complexity through symbolism and compositional layering that projects a clear sense of identity and personhood. 1 'Hee Jackson, 82, Dies in Hong Kong,' Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 2, 1949, p. 6. 2 'More about Hon Chew Hee,' Honolulu Star-Bulletin, November 4, 1931, p. 6. 3 'Scholarship is Awarded Young Island Artist,' The Honolulu Advertiser, June 7, 1931, p. 14. 4 'Drawings in Colored Wash,' The Honolulu Advertiser, April 9, 1939, p. 12. 5 'Art Exhibit To Be Held at Beretania Open House,' Honolulu Star-Bulletin, January 4, 1934. 6 'New Techniques Displayed in Water Color Exhibition,' The Honolulu Advertiser, September 18, 1949, p. 6. 7 Prithwish Neogy, Artists of Hawaii: Nineteen Painters and Sculptors, Volume One, Honolulu, The State Foundation on Culture & The Arts and the University Press of Hawaii, 1974, p. 69. 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