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(b Mexico City, Mar 29, 1915; d Mexico City, May 25, 1959).

Mexican architect and theorist. He received a degree in architecture at the Escuela Nacional de Arquitectura (ENA) at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México (UNAM) in 1940, and studied urbanism at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional in 1941–1942. In 1954 he received a doctorate in Philosophy and Letters at UNAM. Arai built relatively few buildings, but he was one of Mexico’s foremost theorists of architectural modernism. Early in his career he embraced the principles associated with the formally austere, politically engaged architecture that dominated Mexico City in the 1930s; later he became fascinated by the architecture of indigenous Mexico and its lessons for modern architects. Arai’s intellectualism distinguished him from many of his colleagues and his study of history and philosophy shaped his sophisticated writings on architecture, urbanism, and indigenous art.

Arai had a distinguished teaching career with appointments in multiple fields and at several institutions. He was professor of architectural theory at ENA from ...

Set of financial methods, instruments, and business models that are used in the Art market. Important developments since the 1960s include the spreading availability and use of art price information and price indexes (see Art index), the emergence of loans collateralized by artworks, repeated efforts to create art investment structures, and a strong growth in art market advisory services provided by wealth managers and new entrepreneurs (see also Investment).

The first major development has been the spread of art price information and art price indexes over the last half-century. After a few difficult decades, art price levels and public interest in the art market were going up again in the 1950s and 1960s. A number of books on the history of the art market and on art investment that were published around that time—Le Vie Etrange des Objets (1959) by Maurice Rheims, Art as an Investment...

Name used in Mexico and throughout Latin America for a folding screen. The word biombo is a transliteration of the Japanese word for folding screen—byōbu—an acknowledgement of its place of origin. The Japanese byōbu has long been a quintessential example of Japanese art and was a common diplomatic gift to foreign courts in the early modern period (see Screen, §1). Referred to as the ‘face of Japanese diplomacy’, byōbu were presented as ambassadors of Japanese culture to places as far off as London and Mexico City. Byōbu also found their way to New Spain as exports in the Manila Galleon trade. In 17th-century Mexico the Japanese screen was admired by artists and patrons, and was adapted and reinterpreted on a grand scale. The unique format of the biombo provided new ways for artists to depict subject-matter, and locally made biombos began appearing in the archival record in the first years of the 17th century. ...

[Chen Fushan, Ch’en Fu-shan]

(b Panama, Nov 24, 1905; d 1995).

Chinese painter and art critic. Chan moved with his family to Hong Kong in 1910, becoming an active member of the Hong Kong arts scene in the 1920s. A self-taught artist of Western-style painting, Chan painted realistic watercolours of the local scenery. From the early 1960s he experimented with a variety of styles and techniques inspired by international avant-garde movements, ranging from geometric abstractions painted with a spray gun to configurations achieved by splashing and dribbling paint on canvas. In the 1970s Chan won critical acclaim for his dreamlike fantasy paintings populated with colourful creatures, both real and imaginary, and inspired by the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong life. Chan has been called the myth-maker of Hong Kong, and his complex iconography as well as his heterogeneous artistic origins are significant for the light they shed on the cultural history of Hong Kong.

(b Guangzhou, Jun 16, 1937; d Apr 6, 2001).

Venezuelan painter of Chinese birth. In 1956 he entered the Escuela de Artes Plásticas “Julio Arraga” in Maracaibo, and in 1958 he traveled to Caracas to continue his studies at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas “Crisóbal Rojas” and participated in the Salón Municipal de Pintura where he was awarded the first prize. Because of his award Hung was able to travel to Paris later that year to study at the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He returned to Maracaibo in 1962 and came to be part of the cultural group 40 grados a la Sombra.

Hung is most widely known as one of the principal members of Abstract Expressionism in Latin America (Benko 2009, 6). His fundamentally gestural paintings express energetic movements and violent strokes that feature intensely personal calligraphy, in which influences from his native China and adopted Venezuela seem to blend cohesively. Hung received international acclaim and he participated in several distinguished Salons in Venezuela. Additionally, he also participated in the eighth Bienal de São Paulo in ...

(b Lima, 1932).

Peruvian painter. He was born to a Japanese father and a Peruvian mother, and the influence of the former came to have some bearing on his art. He studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Lima until 1960, and from 1962 to 1964 he attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he studied graphic art; he went on to study design in Rio de Janeiro. His painting style developed from realism towards abstraction, and it is characterized by a variety of textures, subtle colors, and the suggestion of vast spaces (e.g. Endlessly Spacious, 1962; Washington, DC, A. Mus. Americas); his later works include references to Surrealism.

(b Taichung, Feb 16, 1964).

Taiwanese conceptual artist, active also in the USA. From the age of six, Lee Mingwei spent six summers training and living under the care of a Ch’an Buddhist monk in the mountains near Taichung. These experiences of quietude, compassionate behavior, and attentiveness to the quotidian aspects of life were formative in his development as an artist. Lee studied biology and architecture before completing a BFA Hons (Textile Art) from California College of Arts in 1993, and a MFA (Sculpture) from Yale University Graduate School of Fine Arts in 1997. Lee’s first major public presence, a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 1998, received acclaim, and he soon began presenting projects in biennales and museums throughout Australia, Asia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe. His first major survey was presented by Mori Art Museum in 2015 and toured to Taipei and Auckland....

(b Kumamoto, Sep 14, 1924; d São Paulo, Sep 22, 1997).

Brazilian painter of Japanese birth. In 1934, at the age of ten, he immigrated with his family to Brazil, where he first worked in a coffee plantation in the interior of São Paulo State. He painted his first pictures c. 1945, shortly thereafter joining the Grupo Seibi, a group of Japanese Brazilian visual artists based in São Paulo. His early works are mostly still lifes and landscapes, some of which recall works by Braque and Picasso, such as Still Life (1952; Rio de Janeiro, Mus. N. B.A.). However, by 1955, he began producing works characterized by a calligraphic abstraction of compact brushstrokes, abrupt lines, and dramatic bursts of paint generally against monochrome backgrounds. Even at his most abstract he continued to use referential titles alluding to the real world and to human emotions, as in Agony (1963; Washington, DC, A. Mus. Americas).

(b Cuautitlán, Jalisco, Feb 2, 1918).

Mexican painter, draftsman, and sculptor. Although identified with the Mexican school of painting, he was also greatly influenced by oriental art—his father was Japanese and his mother Mexican—especially in his landscapes and in ink drawings in the traditional manner of Japanese artists. He experimented with diverse techniques of painting and had notable success working with high-temperature color ceramics, for example in A Song to Life (1969), a mural in Celaya, Guanajuato. As a sculptor he produced stone-carvings again evocative of oriental art as well as five monumental stone sculptures incorporated into the landscape (Toluca, Mus. A. Mod. Cent. Cult. Mex.).

(b Tucupita, Dec 12, 1938; d Caracas, Sept 11, 2015).

Venezuelan painter, engraver, and draftsman. In 1960 he graduated in fine art and graphic arts from the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Aplicadas in Caracas. Subsequently, he studied at the Academia de Bellas Artes in Rome from 1961 to 1962 before entering the Engraving College of Beijing’s Fine Arts College to specialize in woodcuts, which allowed him to perfect his graphic technique and develop the use of black and white that characterize his work.

Upon returning to Venezuela in 1965, he worked in the Design Studio of the Instituto Nacional de Cultura y Bellas Artes–Inciba, and in 1968, he was commissioned as a graphic designer for the Revista Nacional de Cultura and the Revista Imagen. Palacios continued to perfect his knowledge of graphic techniques at the University of Warsaw (1968), the Western Berlin Academy of Arts (1969), the Contemporary Center of Engraving in Geneva (1973...

(b Italy, 1835; d Italy, after 1870).

Italian photographer, active in Argentina. An avid traveler, he visited India and China before opening a studio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he worked from 1865 to 1870. He was among the first photographers to discover the beauty of the Argentine Pampa and to make portraits of its picturesque Gauchos. Through his photographic books, which were available on a subscription basis, the Pampa was opened up for tourists. In ...

Term for the return of lost or looted cultural objects to their country of origin, former owners, or their heirs. The loss of the object may happen in a variety of contexts (armed conflicts, war, colonialism, imperialism, or genocide), and the nature of the looted cultural objects may also vary, ranging from artworks, such as paintings and sculptures, to human remains, books, manuscripts, and religious artefacts. An essential part of the process of restitution is the seemingly unavoidable conflict around the transfer of the objects in question from the current to the former owners. Ownership disputes of this nature raise legal, ethical, and diplomatic issues. The heightened tensions in the process arise because the looting of cultural objects challenges, if not breaks down, relationships between peoples, territories, cultures, and heritages.

The history of plundering and art imperialism may be traced back to ancient times. Looting has been documented in many instances from the sack by the Romans of the Etruscan city of Veii in ...

(b Buenos Aires, Oct 1, 1927; d Aug 1, 2001).

Argentine painter, graphic designer, teacher, and critic. After studying in Japan from 1935 to 1951 he returned to Argentina, remaining there until his move to New York in 1963. His paintings from 1952 were in the style of Art informel, with a calligraphic emphasis demonstrating his sympathy with oriental art, but around 1960 he moved towards a more gestural abstraction in works such as Painting No. 20 (1961; Buenos Aires, Mus. A. Mod.), using thicker paint and more subdued colors.

In 1964 Sakai began to use more geometric shapes in his pictures, and he continued to do so on moving in 1965 to Mexico, where he remained until 1977. His example opened the way to geometric abstraction in Mexico, where there was no real tradition of such work. In 1976, shortly before returning to New York, he began a series of paintings using the formal repetition of parallel undulating lines of strongly contrasting color. From ...

(b Barranca, nr Paramonga, Apr 1, 1932).

Peruvian painter. He was born to a Japanese father and a Peruvian mother. He attended the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Lima, where he was taught by, among others, Sabino Springuett, Ricardo Grau, and Juan Manuel Ugarte Eléspuru. His work was inspired partly by travels through Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru, but in its symbolism it also reflected his admiration for the works of Bosch, El Greco, Klee, and Miró; with its subtle range of tones and textures and its undefined forms it also expressed elements of his Japanese heritage. In the 1960s Shinki Huamán began to explore further the use of tone as a means of conveying space, while figurative elements reflected the Surrealist interest in the subconscious (e.g. Night, Day, and You, 1968; Lima, Banco de Crédito del Perú).

[Dongfang huahuiEastern Painting Society]

Taiwanese painting association active from 1956 until 1971. Whether active military personnel or Taiwan Teachers’ College students at the time, the founders of the Ton Fan Art Group were all pupils of Li Chung-shan (Li Zhongsheng; 1912–1984), one of the fathers of Taiwan modern art, who taught at Andong Jie Huashi, his private studio on Andong Street, Taipei. The founders consisted of the Eight Great Highwaymen, so-named by the critic Ho Fan (He Fan) (Xia Zhengying [Hsia Cheng-ying]) (1910–2002): Hsiao Chin (Xiao Chin), Hsiao Ming-hsien (Xiao Mingxian) (Xiao Long [Hsiao Lung]) (b 1936), Li Yüan-chia (Li Yuanjia; Lee Yuan-chia; 1929–1994), Ho Kan (Huo Gang; Huo Kang) (Huo Xuegang [Huo Hsüeh-kang]) (b 1932), Wu Shih-lu (Wu Shilu; Wu Hao; b 1931), Chen Tao-ming (Chen Daoming; Daomin Chen; Tommy Chen; 1931–2017), Hsia Yang (Hsia Yan; Xia Yang; b 1932), and Ou-yang Wen-yuan (Ouyang Wenyuan; ...

( fl Rome, 1562–90).

Italian painter and cartographer of Lombard birth. Little is known of his early life or career before his first documented commission in Rome in December 1562 for the design of maps in the Terza Loggia of the Vatican Palace for Pope Pius IV. It is unclear whether he came to Rome for this commission or whether it was awarded after his arrival. He worked on this project until September 1565, at which time he also painted a scene of the concluding session of the Council of Trent—his only known figurative work—on the walls of the same loggia. During his career he worked for a variety of prestigious patrons in addition to Pius IV, including Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and Pope Gregory XIII.

Vanosino played a key role in the development of cartography in early modern Italy. The advancement in map-making was largely due to the rediscovery of Ptolemy’s Geographia in 1406...

(b West Carlisle, OH, April 8, 1871; d Mexico City, July 8, 1925).

American photographer and teacher . A self-taught photographer, he began taking photographs in 1893 and soon developed a style that showed the influence of Whistler, Sargent and Japanese prints. He was elected to the Linked Ring, Brotherhood of the group of Pictorial photographers in 1900 and was a leading member of the Photo-Secession from 1902. His evocative photographs of rural landscapes and of his family celebrate the joys and virtues of the simple, middle-class way of life that existed in the USA before World War I (e.g. Ring Toss , 1899; New York, Met.)

By 1906 White was already a major figure in American photography and moved to New York, where he began a close professional and artistic relationship with Alfred Stieglitz that lasted until 1912. His work was published in Camera Work in July 1903, Jan 1905, July 1908, July 1909 and Oct 1910. In 1908 he began teaching photography, founding in ...