Rediscover Victoria Yau

Exhibition

Rediscover Victoria Yau 尋美

November 18, 2026 - March 21, 2027

In early January 2023, Jeffrey Moy, founder of the Heritage Museum of Asian Art, received a call from a community member about a burst pipe that had flooded the home of a Chinese American artist. He went to the house and found many remarkable paintings damaged by water.

Recognizing the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of the works, the museum undertook emergency salvage and stabilization efforts, drying, conserving, and securing as many of the paintings as possible.

We later learned that the artist was Victoria Yau (b. Shanghai, 1939–2023). At the time of the flood, she had just been diagnosed with stage IV cancer and was in the emergency room in New York City. She passed away a month later.

The project to rediscover Victoria’s life and work began with the effort to save her paintings. It has grown with the support of many people whose lives were impacted by Victoria herself and by her art, both during her lifetime and in the years since her passing. This exhibition marks the first stage of research into Victoria’s life and artistic legacy and is part of a series of exhibitions planned across the United States. The discovery continues.

What happened to Victoria’s work was not simply a personal crisis but a window into a larger structural problem that extends far beyond a single artist. Artists’ legacies, particularly those of Asian American artists, are routinely overlooked and excluded from formal archival and conservation systems, while efforts to preserve them remain under-resourced. As a result, irreplaceable works, including Yau’s life’s work, are vulnerable to damage, dispersal, or complete loss. This reveals a systemic gap in how Asian American art histories are preserved and valued.

Rediscover Victoria Yau emerges as a direct response to this gap.

About the Artist

Victoria and her mother Judy Liu, 1941

Victoria Yau papers

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Victoria with paintings in frames, c. 1957

Victoria Yau papers

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Victoria Yau 劉洵美

September 1, 1939 - February 3, 2023

Victoria Yau (1939-2023) was born in Shanghai in 1939 into a prominent Chinese family during the Second Sino-Japanese War. At the time, Japanese forces already controlled the Chinese-administered districts of the city. In December 1941, they also took control of the International Settlement. Victoria remembered the bombings of her childhood. Amid the chaos, her mother would hurry to put her dowry on her, hoping that if Victoria became separated from her, whoever found her would use it to raise Victoria to adulthood. Victoria also spoke of family members being kidnapped and of becoming a target herself. She fondly remembered the beautiful embroidered shoes she had loved as a child, though her mother bought her more durable shoes instead. Victoria often described the influence of her family and relatives. Many were leaders in their fields who left a lasting mark on history. They were her role models, and she tried to live up to their example.

Victoria showed an early talent for art, and her aunt, Xu Xiquan (徐希泉), taught her to draw. When Victoria was 11, pioneering Chinese woman painter Sun Duoci (孫多慈) recognized her ability and became her mentor. In 1957, Victoria began her undergraduate studies at National Taiwan University, where she studied philosophy and English literature. She continued her art education with several masters of traditional Chinese painting, including Fu Chuan Fu (傅狷夫), Wu Yong Xiang(吳詠香), and Chi Kang (季康).

那個時候來學的學生，真的都是要花一點功夫，下一點決心來的

“The students who came to study at that time really had to put in effort and make a firm commitment.”

Fu Li Shen, 2025 interview with HMAA

Fu Chuan Fu’s son, Fu Li Shen, remembers that his father taught Chinese painting classes in their tiny living room. The family lived far away in a military dependents’ village, or 眷村. Students often spent one to two hours traveling by bus and on foot to attend the weekly classes. In postwar Taiwan, amid the continuing Chinese Civil War and Cold War tensions, resources were scarce. Art was not considered a practical career. Those who chose this path did so out of genuine calling and passion.

Victoria with friends at the University of Puget Sound, c. 1960

Victoria Yau papers

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

畫：本身是一種心靈的感受，一個人外表的成就固然可以滿足人的基本需要，但如果內在沒有深一層的體會，在人生的過程中，始終如一幼兒，而對於我來說，我不可能僅僅以外在的價值能滿足的... 我固然曾經告訴你，畫畫，寫作，都是我慾展擴的事業。但我所謂的事業，並非是賺錢，或目前的利益，而是我真正能貢獻的...

“Painting is, in itself, an experience of the spirit. A person’s outward achievements may satisfy basic needs, but without deeper inner understanding, one remains childlike throughout life. As for me, I could never be satisfied by external values alone... I have told you that painting and writing are both pursuits I want to develop. By ‘pursuits,’ I do not mean making money or seeking immediate benefits, but doing what I can truly contribute (to the world).”

Victoria Yau, 1966 Letter to Stephen Yau

In a 1966 letter to her husband, Victoria described her calling to art as deeply spiritual and connected to her sense of self-worth. This calling began when Victoria was in middle school. Her lifelong friend Katherine Sheng recalls, “There were only four of us at school who wanted to pursue art as a lifelong commitment. Two of us did: Victoria and Lo Fong.”

In 1960, sponsored by the Washington State Federation of Women’s Clubs, Victoria began studying fine arts at the University of Puget Sound. This experience grounded her later artistic explorations and helped shape the work that became her signature style. Victoria recalled that this was when she began to see connections between artmaking, philosophy, and literature. She earned a BA in Fine Arts in 1961. She later enrolled in UCLA’s Master of Fine Arts program and would later move to Chicago. In 1964, Victoria married Dr. Stephen Yau, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Northwestern University, and raised their two sons, Andrew and Philip.

Victoria at home with her art works, c. 1980

Victoria Yau papers

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

For more than fifty years, Victoria continued making art. After moving to the United States, she created hundreds of paintings, including ink on paper, watercolors, multimedia collages, prints, and textiles. About 350 of these works survived. Victoria also made many sculptures, all of which were damaged in the 2023 flood.

Victoria’s imagery is controlled and carefully composed through a process of collecting, arranging, and transforming. She drew connections between the textures, lines, and shapes which she observed in nature and in everyday life. This artistic approach extended beyond her paintings and drawings. It was also reflected in how she arranged her homes, presented herself, and lived her life.

“...My surroundings and the absorption of my spiritual intake are the first base for my creative process, as related to baseball. Please forgive me, I don’t know too much about baseball, but I presume you go to first base first, then to second base, and so on. Sometimes, my special urge and special desire take over, and that is my second base. Then, when I execute these ideas and am working on a piece, it becomes my third base,... or the third stage. When the original concept comes into full view, that is my home run. It is as if you are facing someone from the side or back, and then that person suddenly turns around and you see their full view. So suddenly you see your original idea…”

Victoria Yau, 1985 interview with A. Kalvan

Victoria’s work was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian, the American Academy of Design in New York, and the Illinois State Museum, as well as at Chicago galleries such as Fairweather Hardin Gallery and Dorothy Rosenthal Gallery. Her solo exhibitions included shows at Shu Yu Gallery, Shirota Gallery, and Kamakura Gallery in Tokyo; Nankai University in Tianjin; and Taipei Museum of Art, Cultural Art Center of Kaohsiung, Pristine Harmony Art Center, and Color Field Art Space in Taiwan. More recently, her work was shown at Stanford University and Northwestern University, as well as in various art exhibitions.

Victoria’s art career had several peaks. Over time, however, her work was forgotten by the art world. Her family and acquaintances often recalled how resistant she was to the art market. One frequently told story is that she once sold a painting to a collector. When the collector did not display it where Victoria thought it belonged, she bought it back.

“I often refer to my art works as my daughters that I never had in real physical life…For years when other people misunderstood my works are only all about myself, no, not really…I work tirelessly for them since my late 40’s. I look and search for a space so they can stay, live and survive, so they can say as I say often, ‘I’m alive.’ I try to promote them as the best way I know how, so they can have a future, a lasting life…

They keep me alive
They comfort me in the evening twilight
They stood firm with me in the darkest hour
They never forsaken me
In the weak morning dawn they recharge me for a schedule
I hardly can refuse.
Every day they fill me with joy, as facing a newborn
Again and again.
As I see their photos
They are beautiful, always beautiful.

…

If you are my daughters you don’t expect to sell them, when create them.”

Victoria Yau, About my Daughters, c.2010

Since her passing, Victoria has been rediscovered as one of the earliest Asian American artists who worked in abstraction. Her works are held in private collections and by several museums. Her archival materials are held by the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.

Rediscover Victoria Yau

Heritage Museum of Asian Art, 2026

The Flood

Alison Velasco remembered the flood vividly. A close friend of Victoria’s family, she had been supporting and accompanying Victoria since the 2010s, as Victoria needed more help.

“I look at all these things, and at the back of my mind, I know that at some point I will be the person who sorts through her stuff.”

When the frozen water pipes burst at Victoria’s Evanston, IL home and studio, the news came as a shock. Victoria was dying in New York, and Alison suddenly faced the task she had long anticipated. She took three months away from work to coordinate the urgent cleanup and salvage effort. She connected with Jeffrey Moy and the Heritage Museum of Asian Art. Moy helped identify significant Chinese objects and artworks, and took some pieces damaged by water for assessment and treatment. Alison, her son Santiago, and others moved the surviving artwork to the dry studio and cleared the house for remediation. Usable household items were donated to families in the refugee community. The work was urgent, difficult, and traumatic.

“One thing I regret is that I really wish we’d had time to carefully sort through her belongings. We couldn’t because of the flood. Everything was wet and beginning to mold. I regret that the flood brought such a violent end to her legacy.”

Among the works completely lost in the flood were Victoria’s sculptures and installation pieces.

In fall 2009, Victoria designed and built a gallery above the garage at her home in Evanston. She named it Extraordinary Spring (希泉) in honor of her fifth aunt, Xu Xiquan (徐希泉), who taught her to paint when she was four years old. Victoria also emphasized 泉, the Chinese character for a spring or source of water, as a metaphor for inspiration. She imagined the gallery as a space that could hold and nurture it.

Victoria designed the staircase to the gallery to resemble a waterfall, suggesting inspiration flowing into the garden. In the gallery, she displayed her paintings, sculptures, and installation works. After the property changed owners, the gallery was remodeled and the original staircase was replaced with a spiral metal staircase.

In March 2013, Victoria had documentation of her sculptures transferred to DVD. These recordings allow us to see the sculptures today.

Pathway to Extraordinary Spring, c. 2010

Victoria Yau papers

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Inside to Extraordinary Spring, c. 2021

Victoria Yau papers

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Victoria's Art

In the fifth century, the Chinese scholar Wang Wei (王微) argued that the purpose of shanshui (Chinese landscape painting, 山水) is not simply to represent the visible world, but to express its spiritual essence:

以一管之筆，擬太虛之體；以判軀之狀，畫寸眸之明

With nothing more than a small brush, the artist evokes the boundless universe and the essence of all things. By depicting fragments of the natural landscape, the artist conveys the vast world perceived by the eye and felt by the heart, along with its spirit and vitality.

Wang Wei, On Painting (440 CE)

For generations of Chinese artists, landscape painting offered a way to contemplate the meaning of life and approach the truth of the universe. But how might an artist reach that understanding? In the ninth century, the scholar Zhang Yanyuan (張彥遠) described a turning point in the development of landscape painting. He wrote that Wu Daozi broke with the formal styles of earlier court and temple art by depicting nature with a bold, direct brush, transforming how artists represented the landscape. The two Li artists later brought this transformation to completion.

國初二閻擅美，匠學楊、展，精意宮觀，漸變所附尚 ... 功倍愈拙，不勝其色。吳道玄者，天付勁毫，幼抱神奧，徃徃於佛寺畫壁，縱以怪石崩灘，若可捫酌；又於蜀道，寫貌山水。由是山水之變，始於吳，成於二李。

In the early Tang dynasty, landscape painting remained constrained by the formal styles of Six Dynasties and Sui court and temple art. Wu Daozi broke with these conventions through his vivid depictions of nature, redirecting the development of landscape painting. The two Li later brought this transformation to completion.

Zhang Yanyuan, On Painting Landscapes, Trees, and Rocks (847 CE)

Victoria’s artistic journey resonates with these teachings. She often described travel as essential to her art and took pride in having visited all five continents. During her studies at the University of Puget Sound in the early 1960s, she recognized a connection between art, philosophy, and literature. This marked a turning point in her development, as she began to see art not simply as a craft but as a spiritual practice. She often said that the freedom she experienced in the United States made it possible for her to create in new ways.

Grand Canyon 7:00pm, 1993

Mixed Media Collage - Model of Metal Sculpture Draft No. 12

Included in Rediscover Victoria Yau

Rock 石

The appreciation of rocks (賞石) is a distinctive tradition in Chinese culture. Rocks are foundational to both shanshui (Chinese landscape painting) and traditional Chinese garden design. They are also admired as sculptures shaped by nature. In his 2001 book The Imperial Rocks, David Ren (丁文父) describes how, as literati culture flourished, rocks became vessels for emotion and symbolism. Rocks valued for their strangeness, ruggedness, elegance, and unpolished character grew increasingly popular, expressing the aloofness and steadfast integrity associated with Han culture.

Rocks have been a recurring subject in Victoria’s art. Through her work, she sought to capture their natural beauty while also using them as a means of personal expression.

The Morden Man, 1981

Ink on paper

Included in Rediscover Victoria Yau

Pause, 1984

Paper Collage with Watercolor

Included in Rediscover Victoria Yau

Mammoth Rock, 1984

Mixed Media

Included in Rediscover Victoria Yau

Canyon from the Side, 1988

Color on Paper

Included in Rediscover Victoria Yau

Documentation of a sculpture, c. 2013
(Original sculpture destroyed in 2023)

Victoria Yau papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Included in Rediscover Victoria Yau

Documentation of a sculpture, c. 2013
(Original sculpture destroyed in 2023)

Victoria Yau papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Included in Rediscover Victoria Yau

Water 水

Water was a recurring presence throughout Victoria’s life. She wrote about the great flood in Shanghai on the day she was born:

The maid and my nanny were all whispering the mythology: ‘With such a big rain and flood, the Dragon King must be delivering his daughter to this world.’ It was an omen foretelling the tumultuous journey of this newborn.

Victoria Yau, Mining the Treasure of My Past - A Book of Thanksgiving, 2014

Her name, 洵美, was given to her by her fifth aunt, Xu Xiquan (徐希泉). The character 洵 contains the water radical, while 泉 in her aunt’s name means “spring.”

The title of Victoria’s 1993 book, Chapter of Delight in Water (怡水篇), echoes a famous passage from the Analects “The wise delight in water; the benevolent delight in mountains” (知者樂水，仁者樂山). Her final book, Water Resonant (迴响之水), presented a distinctive body of work in which ink drips and flows across rice paper. She described the forms that inspired these works: “Nature’s basic forms often haunted my dreams. Finally, these organic shapes and forms turned into a new vista, and my new approaches became the echoes of my soul.” She gave her works titles such as “Echo of Water” and “Meeting of Two Waters.”

In Chinese landscape painting, water is often represented through unpainted space or suggested by boats and lines of waves. In Victoria’s work, water moves to the foreground: it takes shape, embodies gesture, and reflects a spectrum of colors.

Melting Ice, 1994
Watercolor on Paper

Included in Rediscover Victoria Yau

Dewdrops, c.2000
Ink on Paper

Included in Rediscover Victoria Yau

Rain 下雨, 1985

Mono Print

Included in Rediscover Victoria Yau

Rain Dance, 1981

Ink on Paper

Included in Rediscover Victoria Yau

Li River Series, 1994

Watercolor on Paper

Included in Rediscover Victoria Yau

The Concept of Blue, c. 2008

Acrylic on Canvas

Included in Rediscover Victoria Yau

Sculpture

Victoria’s interest in sculpture grew out of her experiments with mixed-media work. In her 1996 book Iron Kite, several pieces are identified as “model for a sculpture,” “model for a metal sculpture,” and “model for a clay sculpture.” It is most likely that none of these proposals were ever realized.