Dong Kingman
Dong Kingman (
Overview
Dong Kingman was born Dong Moy Shu in Oakland, California, the son of Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong. At the age of five and a half, he traveled with his family back to Hong Kong, where his father established a dry goods business. He began his formal education at the Bok Jai School, where he was given a school name in accordance with Chinese customs. Hearing that he aspired to be an artist, his instructor gave him the name "King Man" (lit. "scenery" and "composition" in Cantonese). He would later combine the two names into Kingman, placing his family name first in accordance with Chinese naming conventions, creating the name Dong Kingman.
Kingman continued his education at the Chan Sun Wen School, where he excelled at calligraphy and watercolor painting. He studied under Szeto Wai, the Paris-trained head of the Lingnan Academy. It was under Szeto's instruction that Kingman was first exposed to Northern European trends. Kingman would later state that Szeto was his "first and only true influence."
Kingman returned to the United States in his late teens. In 1929 he attended the Fox Morgan Art School while holding down a variety of jobs. It was at this time that he chose to concentrate on watercolor painting.
His critical breakthrough occurred in 1936, when he gained a solo exhibition at the San Francisco Art Association. This exhibition brought him national recognition and success.
In the late 1930s, Kingman served as an artist in the Works Progress Administration,[1] painting over 300 works with the relief program. In 1942 and 1944, Kingman received the Guggenheim Fellowship.[2] During World War II, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, but was transferred to work as a map artist in the Office of Strategic Services[1] at Camp Beal, California and Washington, D.C, by a fan of his work, Eleanor Roosevelt.[2]
Kingman settled in
Kingman had married Janice Wong in 1926. She died in 1954 and he married the writer Helena Kuo in 1956.[3] Kuo died in 1999.[4]
During the 1950s, Kingman served as a United States cultural ambassador and international lecturer for the
Kingman was faculty at the Famous Artists School and his students included artists Win Pe and Paw Oo Thet, among others.[5]
In 1981, Kingman made history as the first American artist to be featured in a solo exhibition following the resumption of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China when the Ministry of Culture of the
The 1990s saw major exhibitions in Taiwan at the Taipei Modern Art Museum in 1995 and the Taichung Provincial Museum in 1999.
Dong Kingman died of pancreatic cancer in his home in New York City in 2000, at age 89.[4]
Documentary
The 2011
Partial list of awards and honors
- San Francisco Art Association First Purchase Prize, 1936.
- Chicago Art Institute International Watercolor Exhibition Award, 1941.
- Guggenheim Fellowships, 1941 and 1942.
- Audubon Artists Medal of Honor, 1946.
- National Academy of Design, elected associate 1946. Received academy competition awards in 1963, 1971, 1975, 1977, including the 150th Anniversary Gold Medal Award.
- Philadelphia Watercolor Club competition awards, 1950 and 1968.
- American Watercolor Society competition awards, 1956, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1997.
- American Watercolor Society Dolphin Medal Award, 1987.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art Award, 1953.
- Pennsylvania Academy of Art Award, 1953.
- U.S. Department of State International Cultural Exchange, 1954.
- Audubon Artists Award, 1958.
- San Diego Art Gallery Award, 1968
- Detroit Museum Award
- Academy of Art College San Francisco Honorary Doctorate for Human Letters, 1987.
References
- ^ a b "Oral history interview with Dong Kingman, 1996 Jul. 3-4". Archives of American Art Oral History Program. 1996. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
- ^ ISBN 9780804757515.
- ISBN 978-0313334511.
- ^ a b http://articles.latimes.com/2000/may/17/local/me-31122 Dong Kingman; Watercolor Painter of Whimsical Cityscapes
- ISBN 978-974-9511-76-3.
- ^ "LAAPFF 2011: Dong Kingman". Asia Pacific Arts. June 7, 2011.
Further reading
Articles
- "Dong Kingman's U.S.A.". Life. May 14, 1951. pp. 100–102.
- "Official Dispatch: Artist records his mission on 40-foot painted scroll". Life. February 14, 1955. pp. 66–70.
- Kingman, Dong; Collier, James Lincoln. "Hong Kong: My City of Typhoons and Tigers". Boy's Life. pp. 24-26, 40.
- Cotter, Holland. "Dong Kingman: A Watercolorist with a Sense of Humor". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. May 17, 2000.
Books
- James, Monte (2000). Dong Kingman, An American Master. New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong: M. James Fine Art. ISBN 0-9658333-0-5.
External links
- www.dongkingman.org — Dong Kingman official site
- Dong Kingman at IMDb
- "Dong Kingman" — 1954 film by James Wong Howe at the Internet Archive
- Dong Kingman papers circa 1961-1975, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences