Blue streak abstract

John Chin Young 容澤泉 (1909–1997) was born in Honolulu to immigrant parents from China. He displayed an interest in the arts from an early age and was largely self-taught, except for calligraphy lessons he received in Chinese language school as a child. His signature gestural paintings were influenced by this background, reinterpreted through the lens of Abstract Expressionism. He is best known for his Chinese painting-like depictions of horses, paintings of children, and abstractions.

Young was also an avid traveler and collector who saw these activities as extensions of his artistic practice. Well-recognized for his philanthropy, he long dreamed of initiating a museum that would further art education and benefit the community, which he donated to the Honolulu Museum of Art and the University of Hawaii at Manoa as the John Young Museum.His work has been exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Art, and is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, de Young Museum, Honolulu Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Portland Art Museum, and Santa Barbara Museum.