Victor Kai Wang, a renowned Chinese American artist who devoted his entire life to the creation of art and art education, passed away peacefully on Friday July 29, 2022 in Winchester MA, surrounded by loved ones. He lived his final 7 months in Winchester under the care of his son Will Wang Graylin and daughter in law Kim Graylin after a stroke in Seattle where he resided for 42 years. Victor was also the beloved husband of Sunny Chu, the dear father Alvin Wang Graylin of Seattle, WA, the brother of John Wang, Jian Wang, Han Qing Wang and the late Kang Wang, and the cherished grandfather of Alex, Ethan, Isaac, Lelani, Krystal and Allison. He is also survived by his former wife Diana Graylin.
Victor was trained in classical Chinese and Western art techniques since an early age, and was a true scholar of art, history and philosophy. He studied under some of the greatest Chinese art masters of his time like Guan ShanYue and Li XiongCai, and veraciously devoured thousands of books on art while translating hundreds of them for his students. He was a professor of fine art and art history at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GAFA) for over 20 years before immigrating to the U.S. with his family in 1980. He spent the following four decades in Seattle pursuing new innovations in painting by combining traditional Chinese and Western art techniques with entirely new mediums and materials. He invented the “Marking Color” painting style in the mid-80’s by applying marking color ink with Chinese brush techniques on large pieces of photography papers or acrylic boards. In the late 90’s he created the “New Song” style of painting by combining computer graphic art techniques with traditional Song Dynasty methods. Victor was a purist, and much more focused on creating art than selling art, in fact he stopped selling his art to collectors and patrons in the 90’s, and stopped exhibiting all together. He would however give his time and his art to charity and to individuals he appreciated. He could be seen at numerous volunteer activities in the International District, giving of his time and sometimes his paintings and calligraphies away for auctions towards good causes. In April 2006, he donated a beautiful painting to the Seattle Chinese Garden as a gift from the Garden to President Hu Jin Tao of China who was visiting Seattle. He also gave one of his finest New Song style paintings to Bill Gates and to Governor Gary Lock. Victor’s life-long pursuit was to bring more beauty and enlightenment to the world and continued painting daily until the past year. He is survived by two sons and six grandchildren, his current wife and his former wife. A select collection of his art is currently on display at the Wing Luke Museum in the International District until May 2023. A documentary of Victor and his art can be found here vimeo.com/172977552
Relatives and friends are invited to Visitation at Highrock Covenant Church at 735 Massachusetts Ave, Arlington MA on Tuesday August 2 from 4:30-5:30PM followed by a Funeral Service at 5:30PM.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Victor’s memory may be made to globalunites.org/ an international peace organization dedicated to inspiring, connecting and equipping youths around the world to make positive impact for their communities.