Showing posts with label 1949. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1949. Show all posts

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Yun Gee in Theatre Arts Magazine

September 1949

Yun Gee, the painter currently constructing a tunnel to the moon starting from the rear garden of his small apartment in Greenwich Village, finds the future in tomorrow, rather than in the past as Roberts does. As an artist Yun Gee has attracted some attention. An impressionist with a fine sense of color and an extravagant imagination, he has been honored with a one-man exhibit in Newark. He also invented a four-handed checker game.

But his tunnel to the moon is his chef d'oeuvre. It was conceived in the spring of 1946, and might now be in the first stages of construction had not some vile thief stolen Yun Gee’s elaborate set of blueprints later that year. That mishap may have delayed the fulfillment of Yun Gee’s dreams, but it has not discouraged him. While less inspired New Yorkers were wasting time trying to cool off at nearby beaches during the drought this summer, Yun Gee was working up a new set of plans and concocting a brochure which he feels sure will result in the initial capital necessary to launch his gigantic project. Nine million dollars will get things underway. That amount is not, of course, a drop in Yun’s total lunar bucket. The tunnel can be built, without extras, estimates Yun, for 150 billion dollars, considerably less than the total cost of World War Two. “And who will say,” says Yun, “that it will not bring more happiness to the world?”

Nothing makes Yun more unhappy than careless reporters who refer to his project as a “bridge” to the moon. “Scientifically,” he has told me repeatedly, “a bridge to the moon is preposterous. You would never get it beyond the atmosphere. It must be a tunnel so that it can be filled with atmosphere.” For the mechanically inclined Yun Gee’s tunnel will be constructed of aluminum tubing, ten blocks in diameter (Yun is a true New Yorker, measuring small distances in blocks rather than miles or fractions thereof) for the first thirty miles. From then on—that is, for the next 221,006 miles, more or less—it will be possible to construct the walls of the tunnel of bamboo and canvas. The project will employ a million men, and Yun Gee sees it as a giant insurance policy against unemployment in event of an extended business recession. Yun Gee is not enthusiastic, however, at the thought of government financing of the tunnel. “A thing of this nature, involving a certain element of risk, should be undertaken by risk capital. It is all very well, on the surface, for the government to step in and provide material and funds; but frankly, that is not how the American West was won. You cannot open up new frontiers by decree. When this thing is done it will be done by men of vision and daring.” Thus far no men of vision and daring have stepped forth with funds. A neighbor of Yun's applied for the soft drink concession for the tunnel; he offered to pay $100000 for the privilege, if and when completed, but as Yun observed, “It is not the kind of money you can use.”

Like Henry C. Roberts the book dealer, Yun Gee, the artist is not discouraged by temporary setbacks. For he has dreams.


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(Tomorrow: Yun Gee’s Patent)

Friday, May 17, 2013

Allen Chin 1949, 1951–1953

Casa Grande Dispatch
(Arizona)
November 7, 1949
Local National Guard Enlists 56 Men in Drive
(Allen Chin in second column; click images to enlarge)

Phoenix Gazette
(Arizona)
February 1, 1951
Art Exhibit Honors Are Won by Visitor
...the third annual art exhibit held by the Florence Junior Woman’s Club.

...Allen C. [sic] G. Chin, of Casa Grande, received honorable mention for his “Deterioration,” a picture of an adobe house falling to ruin. Chin has been painting less than a year. He came to Arizona from China in 1947.

Casa Grande Dispatch
Members Local National Guard Leave for Encampment at Fort Huachuca
(Allen Chin in second column)

The Arizona Republic
February 2, 1952
Youth’s Art to Be Shown
Allen Chin, local artist, is showing his painting, “Escape,” this weekend in the fourth annual Florence Art Exhibit at Florence.

Chin came to the U.S. in 1947. In April of 1950, when he had mastered the English language enough to pore over the history of the Southwest, Chin began to set down in oil his impression of Arizona pioneer days. Prior to this time his work had been confined to school water colors.

Virtually self-taught, the youth has recently received some instruction in mixing colors.

Chin, 23, was born in Boston. While still an infant, his parents returned to Nanking, China. Later they moved to Canton and remained there until the Japanese occupation when they sought refuge in Hong Kong. His father, then an officer in the Chinese air force was killed in a bombing raid.

Chin now paints only at night and on holidays. He is a local grocery clerk and hopes one day to be able to devote full time to painting.

The Arizona Republic
February 7, 1952
Allen Chin Wins Florence Exhibit
Allen Chin of Casa Grande won first place with his oil painting, “Escape,” at the fourth annual art exhibit sponsored by the Florence Junior Woman’s Club.

Casa Grande Dispatch
Allen Chin Wins Popular Award in Art Exhibit
An oil painting “Escape” by Allen Chin, local artist, won the popular award at the Fourth Annual Florentine Art Exhibit held at the Florence Women’s Club February 1 to 3. Chin’s painting depicts the escape of a stagecoach full of pioneers from a band of Apaches. It is one of a series the painter is working on dealing with Southwestern history.

Phoenix Gazette
(Arizona)
February 7, 1952
Casa Grande Artist Wins Exhibit Prize
“Escape,” showing a stagecoach fighting through an attack by Apaches, by Allan [sic] Chin of Casa Grande, won first place in the fourth annual Florentine Art Exhibit sponsored by the Florence Junior Woman’s Club....

...Chin, 23, a native of Boston, lived in China before coming to Arizona in 1947. He became interested in painting early in 1950 and exhibited for the first time in the Florence exhibit in 1951, receiving honorable mention for “Deterioration.”

Florence Blade-Tribune
(Arizona)
February 1953
Florentine Art Exhibit Is Weekend Highlight Here
...an oil painting, the work of Allen Chin of Casa Grande. Chin, last year’s first prize winner, is one of more than a dozen Pinal county artists who have submitted paintings in the exhibition...

Florence Blade-Tribune
February 1953
Florentine Art Exhibit Opens Tonight
Artists from Florence, Coolidge, Casa Grande, Superior and Oracle will display their original works in oil and watercolor at the fifth annual Florentine Art Exhibit which opens this (Friday) evening at the Florence Woman’s Club building.

Sponsored by the Florence Junior Woman’s Club, the event already has attracted 11 painters from Pinal communities including several previous exhibitors....The show is restricted to artists resident or visiting Pinal county.

Already 33 paintings have been entered, the same number as a year ago. Allen Chin, 24-year-old Casa Grande Chinese grocery clerk who won top honors last February, has entered two pictures....

Florence Blade-Tribune
February 1953
Susan Eyer of Coolidge Wins First Award at Art Exhibit
...the fifth annual Florentine Art Exhibit at Florence...

...Allen Chin, the Casa Grande grocery clerk who took first place last year, was second with his western scene, “Bad Medicine in the Wind.” His other entry was “The Tempest.”

The Arizona Republic
February 10, 1953
Susan Eyer Tops Florence Artists
...Second place went to Allen Chin, a Chinese artist from Casa Grande for his painting “Bad Medicine in the Wind.”...

...Allen Chin won first place last year and three years ago won honorable mention.