In conjunction with the Elles: Women Artists from the Centre Pompidou, Paris exhibition, the Seattle Asian Art Museum is featuring two Chinese female artists—Chang Ch’ung-ho Frankel (born 1914) and Lu Wujiu (born 1918).
Having prioritized the careers of their husbands and moved with them for new opportunities, both artists have been overlooked and marginalized by the art world, despite favorable reviews by knowledgeable critics. Yet neither artist is concerned with gender issues in the arts, and each expresses their distinctive training and style—the former being a classically trained calligrapher steeped in traditions of Chinese art and the latter being an abstract painter schooled in America from 1959–60. Chang the calligrapher also painted, and Lu the painter also experimented with calligraphy. In both cases, the “artists’ voices” and choice of subjects are entirely personal and unique.
–Josh Yiu, Foster Foundation Curator of Chinese Art