Wen-Ying Tsai

Wen-Ying Tsai was a celebrated artist who emigrated to New York from China in 1950. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Tsai became a very successful New York City architectural engineer who made time to pursue many other interests, such as evening studies at the Art Students League, political science and economics studies at the New School for Social Research and classes in modern dance. A true polymath, he became an award-winning painter and, by the mid-1960s, a pioneer of Kinetic art. He used his knowledge of engineering in his construction of cybernetic sculptures, interactive works which were exhibited and collected worldwide. The Ontario Science Centre in Toronto held a solo exhibition of his work in 1971, simultaneous with a solo show at Toronto's Electric Gallery which represented his sculpture for several years. A kinetic sculpture comparable to this lot was purchased at that time, and remains in the collection of the Science Centre.