SANYU (1907-1966) (ZHANG YU OR CHANG Y, KNOWN AS) Leopard, the model created in the 1940s Sculpture. Painted plaster proof. Vintage edition. Scattered wear to the polychromy, a chip on the edge of the terrace, small scattered accidents. Signed with the artist's stamp on the terrace. Height: 11cm - Length: 39cm - Width: 12,5cm Provenance: Pierre Gassmann Collection, then by descent. Exhibitions: - Sanyu, l'écriture du corps - Musée national des arts asiatiques - Guimet, Paris, June 16 - September 13, 2004. An identical model presented at this event (N°72). - Sanyu - A Pioneering Avant-Garde in Chinese Modernist Art - Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei, from April 13 to May 12, 2013. An identical model presented at this event. Bibliography: - Sanyu, l'écriture du corps - Catalogue of the exhibition organized at the Musée national des arts asiatiques - Guimet, Paris (June 16 - September 13, 2004), Éditions Skira, Paris, 2004. An identical model is referenced under number 72 in the catalog and reproduced on page 175. - Rita Wong - Sanyu: Catalogue raisonné oil paintings - Volume 2 - ÉditionsLi Ching Cultural and Educational Foundation, Taipei, 2011. An identical model referenced under numberS1 in the catalog raisonné of sculptures and reproduced on page155. - Rita Wong - Sanyu: L'Homme et l'Œuvre peint à l'huile - Volume one: Biography - Hatje Cantz Publishers, Berlin, 2024. An identical model referenced under number166 and reproduced on page 121. Webography: An identical model reproduced on the Works/Sculpture/Animals page of the artist's official website managed by The Li Ching Cultural & Educationa Foundation in Taiwan at the following link: https://www.sanyu.org/detail.php?lang=en&id=&id2=41&Page=1&Page2=1 Related pictorial works: Rita Wong - Sanyu: L'Homme et l'Œuvre peint à l'huile - Volume two: l'Œuvre peint à l'huile - Éditions Hatje Cantz, Berlin, 2024. Our work to be compared with the pictorial works reproduced on pages 193, 226 and 227. Sanyu and sculpture A Chinese artist who settled in Paris in the early 1920s, Chang Yu, known as Sanyu, established himself as a major figure of modernity among Asian artists established in the West in the 20th century. His work, rediscovered from the 1980s onwards, is characterized by his depictions of the female body, but also of the animal world, particularly felines and horses, which he usually depicts in ink or oil. In the 1940s, while Paris was under German occupation, Sanyu tried his hand at sculpture1. This difficult period probably prompted him to explore new techniques, using less expensive materials than paint and canvas, such as plaster and industrial paint. Several sculptures of animals and figures were presented at the Salon des Indépendants in 1942 and 1944. Photographs of his studio and of an exhibition in the Netherlands during this decade also attest to the appearance of these new creations - which he abandoned in 1945, due to lack of success. Few in number and often unglazed, they are also very fragile: only a few have survived2. Our Leopard sculpture bears witness to this marginal creative period in Sanyu's work. A favorite subject of the artist, rooted in the Chinese pictorial tradition, the leopard is depicted here with the same economy of means as in his drawings and paintings, with a characteristic simplicity of form. The work truly embodies the synthesis of Chinese and Western cultures that underpins his entire life and work - dominated by the quest for harmony and the power of line. While sculpture did not bring him greater success than painting at the time, it does reflect a rare and daring period of experimentation in his artistic career. 1 Material in this text is taken from: Rita Wong - Sanyu: Catalogue raisonné oil paintings - Volume 2 - Éditions Li Ching Cultural and Educational Foundation, Taipei, 2011, p. 148-149. 2 Rita Wong - Sanyu: L'Homme et l'Œuvre peint à l'huile - Volume un: Biography - Hatje Cantz Verlag, Berlin, 2024, p. 116.