biography of Dong Moy Chu KINGMAN (1911-2000)

Birth place: Oakland, CA

Death place: New York City

Addresses: San Fran., CA; NYC

Profession: Painter, illustrator

Studied: Lingnan School, Hong Kong, with Sze-To-Wai, 1926; Fox & Morgan Art School, Oakland, CA.

Exhibited: MoMA; MMA WC Exhib. (prize); WMAA Ann.; SFMA, 1935; AWCS Ann. (prize); San Fran. AA, 1936 (first purchase prize); Oakland Art Gal., 1937 (prize); MoMA, Wash., DC, 1938; GGE, 1939; AIC; Columbus (GA) Mus. Arts & Crafts; de Young Mus., 1945 (solo); Phila. WCC, 1950 (Pennel medal); NAD, 1975 (gold); Hammer Gal., NYC, 1970s; Beijing (China), 1981; Taipei Fine Arts Museum (Taiwan), 1994; Taichung Provincial Museum (Taiwan), 1999 (retrospective).

Member: NA, 1951; San Francisco AA; Bay Region AA; Calif. WCS; AWCS; West Coast WCS

Work: AIC; MMA; MoMA; WMAA; BM; BMFA; Delaware Mus.; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT; SFMA; San Diego Mus.; Mills College, Oakland; de Young Mus. Commissions: murals for WPA, San Francisco, 1942, Hilton Hotel, New York, 1963, (mosaic) Pres. Hotel, Hong Kong, 1964, Bank Calif., San Francisco, 1968 & Boca Raton Hotel, FL, 1970.

Comments: Chinese-American painter of urban scenes. When he was five, his family moved to Hong Kong, where he received training in oriental and occidental art. In 1929 he returned to San Francisco, worked on WPA projects for five years and drew maps for the O.S.S. during WWII. He settled in NYC after the war. Preferred media: watercolors, lacquer. Positions: teacher, Sacramento AC; dir., Greatest Amusements Magazine; instr., Columbia Univ., 1946-54; instr. of watercolor & history of Chinese art, Hunter College, 1948-53; instr. of watercolor, Famous Artists School, Westport, CT, 1954-on. Illustrator: The Bamboo Gate," 1946;"China's Story," 1946; "Johnny Hong in Chinatown,"1952; "City on the Golden Hill," 1967; "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds," 1971.

Sources: WW73; WW40; "Dong Kingman, USA," Life Magazine (May 15, 1951); "Dong Kingman" (film), directed by James Wong Howe, 1954; Alan D. Gruskin, The Watercolors of Dong Kingman (Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1958); Hughes, Artists in California, 308."

Legals