Page 163 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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CHAPTER 4: TIME AND TIMELESSNESS

While Chapter Three examines C. T. Loo’s manipulation of the spatial-cultural

dimension in Chinese art, this chapter investigates how Loo positioned Chinese art from a

temporal-cultural perspective. It is important to note that time and space in cultural

spheres are intertwining notions. Cultural space has a temporal dimension; 339 terms such

as “Chinese” and “Western” are not only geographical concepts, but also temporal and

qualitative distributions. In this light, the analysis of the relationship between “ancient-

Chinese” and “modern-American” in this chapter is an expansion of Chapter Three. The

central questions in this chapter are: What were the commercial, socio-political, and

psychological motivations behind the exchange and reception of Chinese art in America?

How did Loo manipulate the element of time in Chinese art in response to America’s

aesthetic and socio-political needs and China’s rising nationalism?

Time

As the letterhead of C. T. Loo’s firm, “ART ANCIEN DE CHINE”, indicates, Loo

340
identified himself primarily as a dealer of ancient Chinese art. Loo was recognized for

his seminal role in popularizing early Chinese art at a time when the majority of

collectors considered Chinese art as objects created in the Ming and Qing dynasties for

export purposes. Loo’s friend and client, Richard E. Fuller observed, “With the beginning

of archaeological excavations he was also the first to introduce archaic jades and bronzes,

339 Johannes Fabian defines the spatial dimension of Judeo-Christian time as “the Eastern
Mediterranean, first, and the circum-Mediterranean with Rome as its hub, later” (Fabian
1983, 2).
340 C. T. Loo to J.E. Lodge, November 7,1922, folder: Lai-Yuan Co., box: Unofficial
Correspondence L, 1910-1922, AAOA-MFA.