[From the catalogue-in-progress for “Landscapes & Livestock”, a loan exhibition for Agincourt Homecoming in the Fall of 2015]

Hai Yun [active 1950s]

“Farmstead”

ca1950

oil on canvas / 22 inches by 32 inches

Even quiet corners of the world can be affected by international events. This mid-century modern painting of a Fennimore county farmstead is proof.

As Mao Zedong’s forces drove Chiang Kai-shek from mainland China, and the Republic fell in 1949, nationalist Chinese refugees fled to Taiwan, Hong Kong and other havens, Hai Yun and her family left Shanghai. Thanks to a sponsorship from St Joseph-the-Carpenter Episcopal Church—Hai had worked with Anglican missionaries in her province—she was able to enter the United States with refugee status and remained in Agincourt about five years, teaching both art and Chinese at the college. This painting was a gift to the Community Collection on her departure.