Page 140 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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human personality… an eminently human and manly face that inspires profound

sympathy, and with an expression of spiritual force and energy that in the history of art

we meet again solely in Durer’s Apostles” (Laufer 1924,1) (Fig. 42 a,b).

Loo not only manipulated the meaning of the object but also physically altered it to

meet Western aesthetic standards. The pair of Tang relief panels (MFA. 37. 249, 37.250)

that Loo sold to the MFA, for instance, were mounted on black marble stands to imitate

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the way in which Western sculptures were usually installed (Fig. 43).
Chineseness

On the eve of C. T. Loo’s retirement in 1950, Henry La Farge in an Art News article

titled Mr. Loo and China Trade recognized Loo’s role as “an educator of a true Chinese

taste” (La Farge 1950, 43) in the West. In 1948 Loo launched An Exhibition of

Authenticated Chinese Paintings, which displayed the collection of the prestigious

Chinese collector-connoisseur Zhang Congyu. In the exhibition catalogue Loo announced

his goal “to start a new era in appreciating Chinese painting in the tradition of real

Chinese connoisseurs” (Loo 1948). The key components of “Chineseness” was

articulated in Loo’s statement in the catalogue, “This is the first time that a collection of

this class of art ever came out which was gathered by a real connoisseur. It has been

studied according to Chinese tradition, with full research in past publications and with the

colophons and seals on each painting authenticated” (Loo, 1948). In Loo’s dealing,

293 The way of installation can be critical to the authenticity of an art object. Christopher
Steiner has noted that African traders removed the stand previously mounted by the
gallery owner because “The presence of the mount indicated that the object had already
been ‘discovered’ by another collector. Its removal reaffirmed the image that traders
collect art directly from village sources.” (Steiner1994, 140)