Chu H. Jor was born Chu Hin-jor on October 2, 1907, in Canton, China, according to
Who’s Who in American Art, 1935, and 1936–1937 editions. His Chinese Exclusion Act case file has not yet been found. The case file would have his parents’ names and date of his arrival in the United States.
Below is a chronological list of Chu H. Jor and the Chinese Art Club in various publications.
The Allied Artists of America: Twenty-first Annual Exhibition, 1934, April Sixth to May Sixth, Inclusive
Brooklyn Museum, 1934
Chu H. Jor
68 Flowers
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
(New York)
April 8, 1934
Allied Artists Hold 21st Annual Exhibition
The Allied Artists of America are holding their 21st annual exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum simultaneously with the Centennial exhibition. The startling and forgotten fact that it is the 21st annual gives rise to almost as many nostalgic memories as the Americana included in the exhibition across the corridor. …
… The art lover in search of decorative landscape and still life will find that the present collection offers a wide variety of well painted canvases suitable for such purposes. Maud Mason, Emma Fordyce MacRae, Dorothy Ochtman, Chu H. Jor, Paul Fuerstenberg, Percy Albee, John Wells James and William Donahue are among the still life painters whose work calls for special mention.
Who’s Who in American Art
Volume 1, 1935
Alice Coe McGlauflin, Editor
American Federation of Arts
Jor, Chu H., 175 Canal St., New York, N. Y. P. — Born Canton China, Oct. 2, 1907. Pupil of Michel Jacobs, George Bridgman, Dimitri Romanovsky; in China. Member: Allied AA; Chinese AC (pres.).
The New York Times
December 29, 1935
The first annual of paintings and drawings at the Chinese Art Club, 10 Pell Street, Dec. 20–Jan. 20.
Utica Observer
(New York)
January 5, 1936
Down amid the twisted streets of New York’s Chinatown (at 10 Pell Street) an exhibition of paintings and drawings by members of the Chinese Art Club is now in progress. It is the first exhibition of Chinese artists living here and includes work done by former students of the Chicago Art Institute and of local institutions.
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
(New York)
January 19, 1936
Chinese Artists Show Work in New York
Down amid the twisted streets of New York’s Chinatown (at 10 Pell Street) an exhibition of paintings and drawings by members of the Chinese Art Club is now in progress, according to the Associated Press.
It is the first exhibition of Chinese artists living there and includes work done by former students of the Chicago Art Institute and New York art institutions.
New York Sun
October 12, 1936
Will Open Gallery
Chinese Art Club to Show Paintings and Sculpture.
The Chinese Art Club will open a new gallery at 175 Canal street, in Chinatown, Wednesday evening at 8 o’clock, with an exhibition of paintings and sculpture by twenty Chinese and American artists, Chu H. Jor, president of the club, announced today.
The club was founded last year and held exhibitions last winter at 10 Pell street, but this is the first time, Mr. Jor said, that the club has had an adequate gallery to display the work of members.
Among the exhibitors are Oronzio Madarelli, Stuyvesant Van Veen, Tschia Lenzene. Harry Wong, Howard Low and K. L. Eng.
Mr. Jor said that there would be exhibitions from time to time during the winter, together with Oriental music and dance concerts, and reading of Oriental literature.
“Our purpose is to introduce Chinese art to the American public and Occidental art to the Chinese public,” Mr. Jor said. “That is why we have American artists among our members and sponsors. Many of our Chinese painters, too, have lived in America all of their lives, and their work is modern and individual, and not Oriental.”
New York Post
October 24, 1936
Chinese Art Club Holds Canal Street Exhibit
Those who cherish the racial interpretation of art will find some matter to ponder in the exhibit by members of the Chinese Art Club in their new quarters at 175 Canal Street. For nine-tenths of the work shown is indistinguishable from contemporary occidental art.
Howard Low is most alert to advanced modern trends, creating abstract designs, lively drawings of city life, and intimate paintings like “Goldfish Bowl,” all very well done. Chu W. Young is an able exponent of impressionist landscape art, and Chu H. Jor paints still life with a soft patine of color. Others showing are Mowee Tiam, Harry Wong, Stanley Chin, Tschai Lanzene, K. L. Eng, Bennie Sonn and S. V. Pang.
New York Post
December 26, 1936
Last night the Chinese Art Club opened the First Chinese Photographic Salon at 175 Canal Street.
New York Sun
December 26, 1936
Chinese Club Shown Photographs.
The Chinese Art Club opened the first Chinese photographic salon last evening at 175 Canal street. The exhibitors are composed chiefly of Chinese amateur photographers. This new division of the Chinese Art Club was recently formed The special committee in charge of this exhibit includes Foo Chu, W. Yukon, Y. T. Lou and Kang Chu.
Who’s Who in American Art
Volume 1, 1936–1937
Alice Coe McGlauflin, Editor
American Federation of Arts
Hin-jor Chu, 577 Lenox Ave.; h. 164 East 86th St., New York, N.Y.
Port. P. [Portrait Painter]—Born Canton, China, Oct. 2, 1907. Pupil of Michel Jacobs, George Bridgman, Dimitri Romanovsky; in China. Member: Allied AA. [Allied Artists of America]
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
(New York)
March 26, 1937
Many Attend Exhibition Opening at Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum opened an exhibition of the Frank Crowninshield collection of African Negro Sculpture with a preview for members and guest of the museum yesterday afternoon. The exhibition is open to the public today and will remain on view through April 25.
Among those present at the preview were: … Miss Yee Ching Chin [sic], Chu H. Jor, …
New York Sun
April 27, 1937
City Artists Open Their Exhibition
Preview of Display Given in Municipal Gallery
The twenty-second exhibition in the series arranged by the resident artists of New York city in the temporary galleries of the Municipal Art Committee, 62 West Fifty-third street, was opened with a preview this afternoon for the exhibiting artists and members of the Municipal Art Committee. The exhibition will open to the public tomorrow at noon and will continue through Sunday, May 16.
Four groups of artists are showing oil paintings of their own selection in the four galleries of the building. These groups are self-organized and applied for space for the exhibition and sale of their works without expense and without jury. The members of these groups are as follows.
Gallery 1—Ignatius Banasewicz, Aaron Fastovsky, Ben Galos, F. Wynn Graham, Gitel Kahn, Ragnar Olson, Emma Shumaker and Ted Witonski.
Gallery 2—William Cole Gray, Carolyn Haeberlin, Sally Mewhinney, Laura S. Parsons, Roslyn Reich, Roger Vernam and Mary Burton Wallis.
Gallery 3—Lucien Bildsteln, Eugene H. Bischoff, Paula Eliasoph, Rodney Lethbridge, S. L. Margolies, Albert A. Munro, Leslie H. Nash, Sara M. Pinkus, Malvina C. Slonin and Robert Zoeller.
Galleries 4 and 5—Salvatore Cannizzo, Stanley H. Chin, Frank Giovinazzo, Chu H. Jor, Nicholas Markatos, Irving H. Novick, Evangeline St. Clair and Moowee Tiam.
The temporary galleries are open daily including Sundays from 12 noon to 6 P. M. They are closed on Mondays. Admission is free.
New York Post
May 6, 1937
Municipal Galleries Stage 22d Exhibition
The twenty-second exhibition is current at the Municipal Art Galleries with the usual complement of four self-constituted groups. Gallery I contains such diverse types as Emma Shumaker’s Cezannesque landscape, Ted Witonski’s blunt still life, a vivid street scene by Ben Galos and Aaron Fastovsky’s mystical “Race Against Time.”
Vigorous figure and landscape work by Mary Button Wallis merits attention in the second floor group. Others here are Sally Mewhinney, Laura S. Parsons, William Cole Gray, Roslyn Reich and Roger Vernam. More conventional work will he found in the two remaining groups, which include Paula Eliasoph, S L. Margolies, Albert A. Munro, Eugene H. Bischoff, Leslie H. Nash and, on the top floor, Salvatore Cannizzo, Stanley H. Chin, Frank Giovinazzo, Chu H. Jor, Nicholas Margatos, Irving H. Novick, Evangeline St. Claire and Moowee Tiam. Miss St. Claire’s small paintings are lively and colorful.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
(New York)
May 21, 1937
Pearl Buck to Open Chinese Art Show
When the first Chinese Children's Art Exhibition in America opens tomorrow afternoon in the Chinese Art Club, 175 Canal St., Manhattan, the crash of the Hindenburg and the antics of comic-strip characters will vie with Oriental vases and incense burners as subjects in compositions by 103 youthful painters.
Pearl Buck, novelist, and Dr. Tsune-chi Yu, Chinese Consul General in New York, will attend the opening, according to an announcement by Chu H. Jor, president of of the club.
The New York Times
May 22, 1937
The first local exhibition of Chinese children’s art opens today at the Chinese Art Club, 175 Canal Street. It will be on view until June 20. The children range in age from 2 to 13 years. The exhibition has been organized and assembled by Chu H. Jor, president of the club, which was formed less than two years ago for the purpose of encouraging art appreciation among the Chinese in America.
The New York Times
May 24, 1937
Chinese Children Exhibit Art Work
First Show of Its Kind Contains Scarcely Anything That Is Oriental in Character
The Chinese Art Club at 175 Canal Street opened yesterday its first exhibition of art work by Chinese children. The odd thing about the show is that scarcely any of it is Chinese in character.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
(New York)
June 6, 1937
Galleries
Chinese Art Club (175 Canal)—Chinese children’s exhibit, to June 20.
Chinese Digest
July 1937
The Chinese Art Club of New York held the first Chinese Children’s Art Exhibition in America in that city from May 22 to June 20. A total of 124 paintings, water-colors, drawings, calligraphy, and sculptures by children ranging in age from 2 1/2 to 16 were shown. The prize winning color drawing shown above was executed by E. Jung, age 15. The lower picture shows a group of girls who participated in the exhibition at the refreshment table. [I believe the artist was Earl Jung, the World War II veteran of the 407th Air Service Squardon.]
Daily Worker
(New York, New York)
September 18, 1937
The Art World
Dismissed WPA Chinese and Japanese Artists Express Unity in Paintings at ACA Gallery
The New York art season is getting under way. Galleries in the Champagne Belt are brushing the summer’s cobwebs from the ceiling corners and oiling the door hinges. Collectors, professional and amateur, have returned to the city. The critics have returned from their summer wanderings prepared, as far as adjectives are concerned, for whatever may befall them.
One gallery has kept the torch bright during the past months, spreading both heat and light. The A. C. A. Gallery, 52 West 8th Street, has been staunch in its support of the pink slip artists of The Federal Art Project, having given them three consecutive shows.
The current one is of great importance. Chinese and Japanese artists are exhibiting together, symbolizing their common persecution as aliens without the right to apply for citizenship in a more oblique way, but in a sharper manner, they represent the unity of the Chinese and the Japanese people against the Japanese war-machine.
Dismissed from Art Field
However, it is on the basis of their work as artists that this group presents its case. Victims of the most reprehensible type of legislative discrimination on WPA, they are in serious danger of being wiped out of the art field.
In his prefatory statement, Harry Gottlieb, president of the Artists’ Union, one of the sponsoring organizations, states the case simply, “As artists this group has made important contributions to our cultural life. They have exhibited in American museums and galleries. They are members of American artists organizations and are accepted as American artists. Their dismissal not only deprives the
country of their talent, but in effect, denies their right to be artists.”
The exhibition’s level is high, with Chuzo Tamotzu and Yasuo Kuniyoshi representing the high water marks. Tamotzu’s “Jersey Station” is a sober harmony of greens and browns, with, a breath-taking freshness in the handling of the palette knife.
Kuniyoshi’s painting of a demimondaine in a wicker chair is as fine in its aristocratic greys and sensuous drawing as anything the artist has done which means that it is very fine indeed.
Eitaro Ishigaki devotes two pictures to the feats of the Basque women who hurled the Italian “volunteers” into the sea. Sakari Suzuki has three solidly constructed conceptions, ingratiatingly painted; C Yamasaki’s “Noonday Rest” is good solid painting with genuine feeling; Don Gook Wu’s “Unlovely Sunset” is wild Expressionism a la Orient; Thomas Nagai’s gouache and water colors are able renditions of mood and place.
Other exhibitors are Yosei Amemiya, Roy Kadowaki, Kaname Miyamoto, Fuji Nakamizo, Kiyoshi Shimisu, George Tera, Moo-Wee Tiam, Bunji Tagawa, Chu H. Jor and C. W. Young.
The New York Times
November 6, 1937
News of Art
The third year of the Chinese Art Club has been inaugurated by the election this month of M. Tiam as president. The showing of Chinese art, plays, exhibitions, classes and other cultural gatherings are among the club’s many activities.
New York Post
November 20, 1937
M. Tiam has been elected president of the Chinese Art Club, succeeding Chu H. Jor.
New York Sun
November 24, 1937
Chinese Woman Art Professor Teaches Ancient Scroll Painting to New Yorkers
Miss Ching Chih Yee, From Shanghai Art College, Is No Modern—She Goes Back Thousands of Years for Her Precedents.
One of China’s few women professors of painting is reviving the ancient art of the T’angs and the Sungs and the Mings in New York. At 175 Canal street in the Chinese Art Club, Miss Ching Chih Yee opened her first class this week in the art of Chinese scroll painting.
She is doing just what she has been doing in Shanghai for the last five years. She was the only woman professor of Chinese painting in the Shanghai Art College, until she left Shanghai nine months ago. She came to this country at the request of a group of overseas Chinese, to exhibit her work in Vancouver and in Dallas, Texas. Now she has decided to stay in New York until the World’s Fair, where she hopes to hang her scrolls in 1939. Meanwhile, she paints in the mornings, studies English in the afternoon, and teaches Chinese art on two evenings a week.
Her English at the moment is hesitant. It trails off into Mandarin every once in a while. But with the aid of Mr. Chu H. Jor, president of the Chinese Art Club, and in a combination of Mandarin, Shanghai dialect, Cantonese, and English, she told her story yesterday, over cups of tea which she had brewed on the old fashioned gas stove in the corner of her one and a half room apartment at 425 Second avenue. …
The New York Times
November 24, 1937
Art Brevities
A painting class conducted by Miss Yee Ching-Chih, Professor of Chinese Painting at the Shanghai Art College, is being held on Monday, Thursday and Friday evenings from 7 to 10 o’clock at the Chinese Art Club, 175 Canal Street.
Chinese Digest
December 1937
N.Y. Art Club Starts Painting Class
New York City — The Chinese Art club, 175 Canal street, which has sponsored many cultural and art activities among the Chinese here, has recently embarked on another activity which promises to bring out art talent and appreciation of Chinese art among Chinese and Americans alike.
This new activity is the engagement of Miss Yee Ching-chih, professor of Chinese painting at the Shanghai Art college. As instructor of Chinese art, Miss Yee has started a class in Chinese painting at the art club’s studios. Classes are being held three times a week, and a limited number of American students may be enrolled.
The Chinese Art club, in announcing this class, said, “This is the first time that such an opportunity to study Chinese art under an experienced native teacher … has ever been made possible in New York.”
This organization is now in its third year of existence and is about the most active one of its kind in the country. Last June it sponsored the first Chinese children’s art exhibition in America which attracted wide attention among American educators and art critics (Chinese Digest for July, 1937, p. 13). The club has an annual membership exhibition, sponsors native plays, and opens its studios for cultural gatherings of all kinds. Its present president is Moowee Tiam.
New York Sun
February 26, 1938
Chinese Art Club Exhibition.
The Chinese Art Club will open its third annual exhibit of paintings and sculpture at the club’s gallery in Chinatown, 175 Canal street, on Tuesday evening, March 1, at 8:30 o’clock, when a reception and private showing will he held. George Kin Leung, noted authority on the Chinese theater, will talk. The exhibition, which will continue through March 24 free to the public, will he dedicated to the war victims of China.
The New York Times
February 28, 1938
Varied Art Shows Listed for March
The Chinese Art Club will open its third annual exhibition.
Chinese Digest
March 1938
Art Club to Hold Painting and Photography Exhibits
New York—The Chinese Art club here will hold its third annual exhibit of paintings and sculpture at the club’s gallery, 175 Canal street, beginning March 1 and extending through March 25.
The exhibit will include works by Miss Yee Ching-chih, Jack Chen, Chu H. Jor, Kailuen Eng, Moowee Tiam, Tschai Lenzene, Howard Low, and others. Guest exhibitors will include Neysa McNein, Oronzio Maladrelli, Guy Maccoy, Dimitri Romanovesky, and others.
Beginning April 1 and extending through April 15 the Chinese Art club will hold its second photographic salon. Prints for showing may be submitted by any Chinese in any part of the country, and may be of any size, but must be mounted. Submission of prints must be made on or before March 25, announced W. Yukon, in charge of this exhibit. All pictures submitted will be returned in their original wrappings to the senders after the close of the exhibition.
The New York Times
March 3, 1938
Chinese Art Club Displays Paintings
Exhibit Dedicated to ‘Struggle Against Aggression’—Few War Pictures
The Chinese Art Club’s third annual exhibition was opened to the public yesterday at its galleries, 175 Canal Street. A sign at the entrance announced that the show was dedicated to “the Chinese struggle against Japanese aggression.”
There was little sign of that struggle, however, in the exhibition itself. War scenes were outnumbered by still-lifes by more than two to one. Only five of the fifty-two pictures dealt with the war, and one of these was contributed by Neysa McMein, one of the eight non-Chinese artists exhibiting.
The most ambitious of the war scenes was K.L. Eng’s painting of a refugee family. It showed a husband and wife fleeing with four children. The other war scenes were all small. They included a drawing of a woman volunteer, by Jack Chen; a wood engraving of a Chinese soldier encouraging men behind him, by Li Chun, and a water-color of a refugee, by Moowee Tiam, the club’s president.
The rest of the show was made up of pictures of fruits and flowers, pastoral landscapes and peaceful studies of people. And there was little evidence that all but ten of the works were by Chinese artists. Miss Yee Ching-chih’s three pictures and Harry Wong’s landscape were the only ones in the tradition of Chinese painting.
The exhibition will be open until March 25.
New York Post
March 19, 1938
Chinese Club Show
The third annual exhibition by members and friends of the Chinese Art Club is now current at 175 Canal Street.
Some participants, such as K. L. Eng, Jack Chen and Mowee Tiam, have turned in work bearing on the dedication of the show to the defense of the Chinese people. Others have followed their older tendencies, Chu H. Jor showing richly painted still lifes of livid lobsters and fruit. Chu W. Young an impressionist landscape, Tschai Lenzene genre landscapes and Yee Ching-Chih landscapes in the Chinese brush technique.
Work by American artists includes Oronzio Maldarelli’s handsome dancer, Guy Maccoy’s “The Old Tree,” two compositions by Genoi Pettit, a still life by Arthur Schwieder and a drawing by Neysa McMein.
The New York Times
March 20, 1938
Salon for Chinese
Setting March 25 as a deadline for receiving prints, the Chinese Art Club, 175 Canal Street, New York City, has issued an invitation to all Chinese photographers to submit their pictures for a salon and exhibition. Prints of any size are acceptable, but in all cases they must be mounted. The salon will be on display at the club from April 1 to 15.
New York Post
March 26, 1938
A spring group show is on at Vendome Galleries. P. Vogel’s trenchant landscapes, Ellis Wilson’s village scene at nightfall and John Sennhauser’s gouache figure are particularly worthy of note. Some other exhibitors are Jerome Meyers, Moses Soyer, Chu H. Jor, Lawrence Lebduska and Oronzo Gasparo.
Chinese Digest
May 1938
“Refugee”—A Painting by K. L. Eng
The Third Annual exhibition of the Chinese Art club in New York was held there March 1–25, in which fifty paintings, water-colors, sculpture, and woodcuts were seen. Twenty-five artists, 15 of whom were Chinese and the rest Americans, participated. The technique shown ranged from T’ang method, represented by Miss Yee Ching-chih, to abstraction, an example of which was Tschai Lenzene’s “Realization.” Both subject and technique, however, were predominantly western.
Chen Suichang’s “Lower Manhattan” has a photographic finish; Moowee Tiam’s “Russian Kettle” is good still-life painted with a mature hand and an eye for the significant details; while Chu H. Jor’s “Painting No. 1,” (Red Lobster on Blue Plate) shows promise of still further works to come. Chu's name is included in the current Who’s Who in American Art, first Chinese artist to be so honored in this publication so far. [Chu and Yun Gee appeared in the 1935 and 1936–1937 editions.]
The painting shown above is by K. L. Eng. Born in China, Eng studied in this country and once taught at the Cleveland Art School. His “Refugee” has a vivid realism hard to be duplicated even by some of China’s best contemporary artists whose theme is the present scene.
The New York Times
December 8, 1938
The Chinese Art Club Elects
The Chinese Art Club, 175 Canal Street, announced yesterday that it has elected its founder, Chu Jor, as the new president for the coming year. K. L. Eng was elected vice president and Wesley S. Chan treasurer. It also announced that its annual Chinese children’s show, which will be held in February, will not be confined to New York City, but will be national in scope.
The New York Times
December 9, 1938
News of Art
The Chinese Art Club has elected Chu Jor as its president succeeding Moowee Tiam, at its fourth annual meeting, recently held. The club will continue this season to introduce to the Chinese and American public the work of Chinese and American artists. The annual children’s exhibition, which will include the work of Chinese children from San Francisco, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston and other cities, will be held in the club gallery in February.
New York Post
December 10, 1938
Art Notes
Chu Jor has been elected president of the Chinese Art Club. ... Wang Yin Pao is showing Chinese paintings at the Art Students League.
The New York Times
December 16, 1938
Notes on Art
Chinese paintings may be seen until Dec. 26 at the galleries of the Chinese Art Club, 175 Canal Street. The galleries are open daily from noon to 6 P.M., and on Sunday from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M.
New York Post
December 17, 1938
New Art Shows
Chinese Art Club: Chinese paintings
The New York Times
December 30, 1938
Art Notes
The exhibition of Chinese paintings current at the Chinese Art Club, 175 Canal Street, has been extended until Jan. 8. The gallery is open daily from 12 noon to 6 P.M., and on Sundays from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M.
New York Post
December 31, 1938
The Chinese Art Club has extended its exhibition of Chinese paintings until January 8.
New York Sun
December 31, 1938
Chinese Art Exhibit Continued.
The Chinese Art Club announces that the exhibition of Chinese paintings at the club gallery, 175 Canal street, will be extended January 8. The gallery of the Chinese Art Club is open daily from 12 noon to 6 P. M., Sunday 10 A. M. to 6 P. M.
Chinese Digest
January 1939
New Officers for N.Y. Chinese Art Club
New York—The Chinese Art Club here at its fourth annual meeting elected Chu Jor for its next president, succeeding Moowee Tiam. Others elected included K.L. Eng, Wesley S. Chan, Marquis Chunn, Arthur Lee, and Stanley H. Chin.
The club is now preparing for its next annual Children’s Art exhibition. This year it intends to have a nation-wide representation and Chinese children’s art work from the Chinese communities of San Francisco, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, and other Chinatowns.
The New York Times
June 18, 1939
Chinese Art Show Set
Work of Children All Over U.S. to Go On View Today
The Chinese Art Club, 175 Canal Street, which for two years has held exhibitions of local Chinese children’s work, announces that this year it is going to hold an exhibition by Chinese children all over the country.
It will open today and will include more than 500 pictures by Chinese children from virtually every Chinatown in America, from New Orleans and Los Angeles to Boston and even Honolulu.
Dr. Hu Shih, Chinese Ambassador to the United States, will be honorary chairman. Chu Jor, president of the club, is the active chairman, and among the sponsors are Pearl Buck, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise.
Daily Worker
(New York, New York)
July 6, 1939
Chinese Children Hold National Art Exhibit
Down at the Chinese Art Club, 175 Canal St., 287 water colors, crayons, pen and ink drawings, and oils have been assembled into one of the most colorful and interesting art shows available in New York City.
The material exhibited comes from practically every Chinese section in the United States, with 130 contributions from California, and 70 from New York. Though the “oldest” artist exhibiting is only 16, and the youngest is actually two years old, the show reveals an understanding of what is happening in today’s world that might well be emulated by many mature painters.
For the majority of the drawings and paintings deal with the Japanese invasion of China, and with the relation of the invasion to ite Western world especially the United States. Chicago’s 16-year-old O Lin Hom, for example, has contributed an effective cartoon showing Japan closing the door in China to Uncle Sam.
And although 16-year-old Chune Fook of Rose, California, has sent two flower panels, painted in traditional Chinese manner, the third contribution of the talented painter is a terrifying black and white plea for aid to the starving Chinese women and children.
That the young Chinese Americans have been well-schooled in ancient Chinese art forms can be seen in such wafer colors as that of Henry R. Chew, the 14-year-old Los Angeles lad who sent his lovely “Three Ancient Warriors” to the show. This is a water-color which goes back to the Third Century A.D. for its material, depicting the emperor, his general and prime minister.
Second Annual Show By Art Club
Two groups of water-colors, those of Ernest Louie of Cleveland and Charles Wong of San Francisco reveal top-flight talent, worthy in every way of the prizes and honor medals they have already been awarded by the judge.
The exhibition of Chinese Children’s Art is the second to be presented by the Chinese Art Club, which was founded in New York in 1935. The first exhibition was held in 1937, with contributions from New York’s young Chinese artists only. The present show is the first of national scope, and should be the forerunner of many others.
The honorary chairman of the present exhibition is Dr. Hu Shih, Chinese Ambassador to the United States, with many leading friends of China participating in the presentation.
The purpose of the Chinese Art Club is fourfold: to develop a keener appreciation for all the arts; to introduce Chinese arts to the American public and occidental art to the Chinese public; to encourage young artists and art students; to promote social fellowship.
The show, which closes on July 23rd, is open every day from 1 to 6 P.M. Admission is free; the catalogue contains seven reproductions, and is 10 cents.
The spectator may if he wishes, make a contribution toward the cause of peace in China.
Supplement to Mallett’s Index of Artists, International—Biographical
Including Painters, Sculptors, Illustrators, Engravers and Etchers of the Past and the Present
Daniel Trowbridge Mallett
Peter Smith, 1948
Chu, H. Jor
Chinese. b. Canton 1907; ad. New York. W. [watercolor]
Jor, Chu H.
Chinese. b. Canton 1907; ad. New York. W. [watercolor]
Asian American Art: A History, 1850–1970
Gordon H. Chang, Mark Dean Johnson, Paul J. Karlstrom, Sharon Spain
Stanford University Press, 2008
The Tip of the Iceberg: Early Asian American Artists in New York
Tom Wolf
… Chu H. Jor was active in Chinatown and founded the Chinese Art Club, which began in 1935 on Pell Street and then moved for several years to 175 Canal Street. The purpose of the club was to encourage young artists and art appreciation, and “to introduce Chinese artists to the American public and Occidental arts to the Chinese public.” The club held a series of exhibitions in the late 1930s, featuring works by Chinese artists plus some by non-Chinese. There were several shows of children’s art as well as of photography, and the art shows featured examples of the Chinese-style painting, including those by Yee Ching-chih, who offered classes in Chinese painting at the club. But most of the works were Western in style, probably including those of Jor, whose paintings are unknown today but who studied with American art teachers such as George Bridgman and Dimitri Romanovsky from the Art Students League.
Shaping and Reshaping Chinese American Identity: New York’s Chinese During the Depression and World War II
Jingyi Song
Lexington Books, 2010
On March 16, 1938, Chu H. Jor, a well-known artist, was invited to give a special lecture that traced the history of Chinese art.[53]
The Chinese Art Club was the first professional organization of Chinese American artists to organize annual gallery exhibitions to provide space and opportunities for Chinese American artists to express themselves through their artworks. Giving them a forum to air their feelings, views, and ideas about both China and the United States, the Chinese Art Club and its organized art exhibitions aided young Chinese American artists in rediscovering themselves.
Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, Economic, and Political History [3 volumes]: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, Economic, and Political History
Xiaojian Zhao, Edward J.W. Park Ph.D.
ABC-CLIO, 2013
Artists in New York (1900–1940)
… The artists who were adventurous enough to leave their native countries for the United States were independent spirits, and many of them had leftist political views. In the mid-1930s they organized three exhibitions at the progressive ACA Galleries protesting their exclusion from the government projects. These shows included both Japanese and Chinese artists, an unusual stepping up to visibility of the Chinese who tended to work within the Chinese community and not to have a presence in the established New York art world. They were led by Chu H. Jor, who studied at the Art Students League before founding the Chinese Art Club in Chinatown in 1935, to promote art awareness in his community. Unfortunately, little is known about the actual art made by Jor and his colleagues. …
(Next post on Friday:
Yun Gee in Who’s Who in American Art)
