Harry Lum
Purple and White Landscape
1959
Oil on canvas
38 x 48 in.
Fair market value: $20,000

Information provided by the Artist: Harry Lum (1930–2022) was the son of Chinese immigrants and grew up in a San Francisco Chinatown tenement. He graduated from Lowell High School before earning his BA (1953) and MA (1954) from UC Berkeley. Influenced by Bay Area Figurative painters like Paul Wonner and Richard Diebenkorn, he saw figuration as a way to explore human experience. After serving in the Army, he received a Fulbright scholarship to study in Paris (1959–1960). Upon returning, he taught at UC Berkeley and the Richmond Art Center (1961–1972) before joining Grossmont College in El Cajon (1972–1995). A dedicated artist and educator, Lum exhibited widely on the West Coast, with solo shows at Mills College Art Museum, San Jose Museum of Art, San Diego Museum of Art, and others, and group exhibitions at SFMOMA, the de Young, and the Oakland Museum. He retired to Nevada City in 1995. Lum's work is represented in the Crocker's permanent collection.