Mendofleur

This piece is very long, and a photo will not do it justice due to its size. However, it was designed by Chen Chi who was born in Wusih, Kiangus, not far from Shanghai. He studied painting in China until he traveled to the United States in 1947 through a cultural exchange program. In 1964 he became a U.S. citizen. Sometime during the years here as a struggling artist he did some designs for Schumacher for their textiles. Primarily a landscape painter, he also was a visiting professor at Pennsylvania State University and Utah State University in the 1960′s and 1970′s.

This piece is a screen printed polished cotton with the shiny side to the back. It measures 109″x 50′. At the top it identifies the company, the title of the piece, and the artist.

When I found this piece quite a few years ago, I was a dealer in antique/vintage textiles. Always on the lookout for the unusual, I found this in an antique shop in a small town forty miles north of San Francisco. I recognized Schumacher, but had no idea about Chen Chi. A few weeks later I called Schumacher to see if I could get some information from their archival department. They called me back a few days later wanting to know where I had found this and was I going to keep it or sell it. At the time, I was not ready to let it go and they were not offering any price, so I held on to it. They gave me a little information on Chen Chi, but not much. I did most of the research eventually on my own. It is a dramatic panel that needs proper mounting for display. I find it to be unique. I have never seen any other like it. I think Schumacher was more intruiged that it showed up in a small town north of the Bay Area, but with San Francisco’s large Asian community, it seemed a likely piece to end up on the West coast. Chen Chi passed away in 2005.