Based on archival research, this dissertation is a pioneering study of Loo Ching-Tsai (C. T. Loo, 1880-1957), a leading international art dealer, and his role in the circulation and reception of Chinese antiquities in the United States between 1915 and 1950. By investigating the modes of transaction, network, conceptual framework, and visual strategies in his business, I argue that C. T. Loo played a significant role in the framing of “Chinese art” by situationally capitalizing on the boundaries between different territories, concepts, and roles in the market-museum-academia network.
The introduction places Loo against the theoretical and historical background of the exchange, study, and display of Chinese antiquities in America. The first part of this dissertation focuses on the modes of transaction and social networks in his dealing.The second part investigates how Loo’s negotiation of the spatial-temporal-cultural boundaries recontextualized ancient Chinese art in modern America. The last part examines Loo’s presentational strategies, which articulated the power relations in his operations. This dissertation concludes that although C. T. Loo, as a network builder and cultural mediator, played an important role in the formation of Chinese art collections in America, his dealing was based on America’s capitalist and imperialist logic that Chinese antiquities were to be consumed by the rich and the powerful in modern America.By examining a crucial figure, this dissertation serves as a sourcebook and conceptual map for art dealership study, a generally neglected field in Chinese art. Looking beyond cultural and disciplinary boundaries, this dissertation suggests a new ground to broaden understanding of Chinese art.