About the Artist

​

John Way (1921-2012) was one of the few Chinese painters who embraced abstract painting early on. Born in 1921 during the rise of abstract painting in Europe and the United States, he was influenced by the abstract expressionism movement sparked by Wassily Kandinsky. John Way was born in a family that valued traditional Chinese culture in Shanghai. At the age of ten, he began learning calligraphy under Li Zhongqian, which laid the foundation for combining Chinese calligraphy with Western avant-garde art in his future works.

​

In 1949, due to the turmoil of war, John Way moved to Hong Kong and later settled in Boston, USA, in 1956. He entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's visual arts department, where he studied abstract painting under Richard Filipowski and deeply explored the abstract techniques of the Bauhaus school. During this time, he developed his own unique Eastern abstract expressionist style.

​

John Way's strong foundation in calligraphy was seamlessly integrated into his abstract paintings, with each stroke and mark exuding harmony and elegance. His fusion of traditional Chinese calligraphy with Western abstract art created a unique and harmonious blend of the two, with both styles complementing each other.

This ethereal aesthetic expresses deep emotions, and John Way never ceased to study and research Chinese calligraphy throughout his life. He dedicated himself to learning from ancient inscriptions such as oracle bone script, bronze inscriptions, and various calligraphy styles such as seal script, clerical script, regular script, and cursive script. As a result, in his paintings, we can see a fusion of experimental Western abstract methods and his deep research into Chinese calligraphy, producing abstract art with strong Eastern characteristics. John Way's works combine the color palette of French Impressionism, the style of American Abstract Expressionism, and the unique spirit of Chinese calligraphy, creating a distinctive and captivating artistic world.