Page 18 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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became the largest collector of Chinese art. Collecting Chinese art served to articulate

America’s national identity as well as its imperialist and capitalist power. In China, it was

a time of political unrest, economic crisis as well as major archaeological discoveries. A

vast quantity of antiquities surfaced in the market. These circumstances placed Loo in a

strategic position between China and the U.S., between supply and demand. With

enormous business acumen and the support of an elaborate network, Loo played a crucial

role in the shaping of Chinese art collections in America. Moreover, Loo was recognized

not only as a merchant, but also as a collector, connoisseur, publisher, exhibition

organizer, and patron of art. His career, which intersected multiple aspects of the art

world, affords us an excellent case to study the process and mechanism in which Chinese

art was formed from 1915 to 1950 in America.

In this dissertation, “Chinese art”, “Chinese antiquities”, and “ancient Chinese art” are

interchangeable. “Chinese art” is considered as artifacts and as concepts framed by a

nexus of relations in a dynamic process. “Chinese art” had many manifestations. It could

refer not only to an artifact produced in a specific moment in time and space, but also to

an object/concept for circulation and consumption in a complex social and cultural

network. It could be used for aesthetic appreciation, scholarly examination, financial

investment, as well as social prestige, spiritual solace, and political propaganda. “Chinese

art” was also a notion shifting across cultures and over time. In Loo’s business, all these

forms and meanings of Chinese art were turned into a marketable spectacle.