Wen-Ying Tsai

Tsai died in Manhattan, New York, on January 2, 2013. He was survived by his wife Pei-De; sons and spouses Lun-Yi London (Michelle) and Ming-Yi Gyorgy (Marloes); grandchildren Sakhaya, Kelsyn, Lina, Flora and Nereus. Artist Otto Piene and composer Wen-chung Chou were among those who spoke at Tsai's funeral service.

2010 "Expo 2010 Shanghai," Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai

2003 R. Kostelanetz, SoHo: The Rise and Fall of an Artists' Colony, Routledge.

2001 "Denise René, l'intrépide," Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

2001 R. Kostelanetz, Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes, Second Edition, Routledge.

1996 Contemporary Artists, 4th edition, St. James Press. T. Grieder, Artist and Audience, 2nd edition, Brown & Benchmark publishers.

1995 "Kwangju International Biennale" in Korea. "Osaka Triennale 1995" - Sculpture.

1995 Paul DeGroot and Dick Oliver, Internet Graphics Gallery. QUE.

1994 Mu Ling, "Tsai's Cybernetic Art," Ming Pao Monthly (January), Hong Kong.

1993 Richard Kostelanetz, Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes. Capella. F. Popper, Art of the Electronic Age. Abrams.

1991 "ARTEC '91, The International Biennale in Nagoya.Japan.

1991 The 2nd International Biennale in Nagova - ARTEC '91. Nagoya City Art Museum. Contemporary Masterworks. St. James Press.

1989 "Phenomena Art," Pan-Asian Expo '89, Saibu Gas Museum, Fukuoka, Japan. KSP, Kawasaka - Kanagawa Prefecture. "Visiona," Vienna Messe-WienerFestwochen. "Visiona," Zurich.

1989 T.S. Liang, "Tsai's Motion Sensitive Sculptures," Hsiung Shih Art Monthly, October '89. Taipei. S. Hunter, "The Cybernetic Sculpture ofTsai Wen-Ying" National Museum of History, Taipei.

1988 "Computers and Art," IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York. "Lights OROT," Yeshiva University Museum, New York. "Interaction," The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Connecticut. "Vraiment Faux," La Fondation Cartier, Jouey-en-Jossas, France. "Art Construit, Lumiere, Mouvement," EPAD, Galerie La Defense, Paris. "Art in the Computer Age," Center for the Fine Arts, Miami.

1988 J. Beil, "Waterworks." OMNI (June) L. Lothian, Abstract Computerism, (June). Les Krantz, The New York Art Review. M. Mifflin, "Off-the-Wall Art," ELLE (September) J. Fodor, "Wired for Sound," OMNI (September) D. Galloway, "Asthtik des Immateriellen," Kunstforum (December) Yeshiva University Museum, Light OROT. CAVS/M.I.T. E.Goldring, Otto Piene und das CAVS/M.I.T. Deutscher Kunstlerbund, Karlsruhe.

1987 "Artware, Kunst und Elektronik," Hanover International Fair. "Artware," Düsseldorf Landsmuseum. "Art in the Computer Age," Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York. "Art in the Computer Age," Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, Ohio.

1987 John Woodford, "The Electrifying Artist," Michigan Today (February). Cynthia Goodman, Digital Visions: Computers and Art. Abrams. David Galloway, Artware - Kunst und Elecktronik. Econ Verlag.

1986 "Les Machines Sentimentales," Avignon. "La Biennale Di Venezia," Venice. "Energetic Art," La Malmaison, Cannes.

1985 Mp. Prat, "Les faits culturels." Encyclopaedia Universalis. Shu Zhang. "Shi Jie Meishu." World Art (December), Beijing.

1984 A. Liot. Art Press (January) Paris. C.Winter-Irving, "Cybernetic Sculpture," Craft Arts (October), Australia. J. Benthall, "The Promises of Technological Art," Landmark Program, Dallas.

1983 J. Benthall, "Les Sculptures Cibernetiques de Tsai," Cimaise No. 162-163. F. Popper. "La Palette du Me Siecle," Revue Franpase de L'Electricite (December) Michael Gibson, International Herald Tribune, December 15, Paris.

1979 Itsuo Sakane, A Museum of Fun. Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo. Sunny and Horace Yuen, South-North Pole. 1Jtfi 107 (April).

1978 Wildenstein Art Center, Houston. Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas.

1977 S. Lee, "The World of Tsai," Lion Art, Taipei (January). C. Wong, "Electronic Sculpture of Tsai," Ming Pao Monthly 136 Hong Kong (April). Liu Nien-Ling, "Cybernetic Sculpture of Tsai," ~BB~BW, (November).

1975 Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Caracas, Venezuela.

1975 J. Reichardt, Le Temps et la Cybernetique. Ed. Micromegas. F. Popper, Art. Action. Participation (tome 1). Ed. Dumond Schauberg F. Popper, La Creativite. Aujourd'hui (tome II). Ed. Dumont Schauberg F. Popper, Die Kinetische Kunst und lhre Folgen (tome III). Ed. Dumont Schauberg. L. P. S. Resumen 12 October 1975, Caracas.

1974 J. Reichardt, "Twenty Years of Symbiosis Between Art and Science," Impact on Society, UNESCO (January–March). Vilem Flusser, "Aspects and Prospects of Tsai's Work," Art International (March). J. Benthall, "Cybernetic Sculpture of Tsai," Art International (March 1974).

1973 Galérie Denise René/Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf. Musee d'Art Contemporain, Montreal.

1973 H. Dufrenne, "L'Art en Occident." Le Coumer, UNESCO (March). Sam Hunter, American Art of the Twentieth Century. Ed. H. Abrams.

1972 Galérie Denise René, Paris Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Galérie Denise René, New York

1972 Jasia Reichardt, "Engineer Extraordinary," New Scientist 52/777 (January). J. Benthall, Science and Technology in Art Today. Ed. Thames & Hudson, London. Robert Hughes, "Shaped by Strobe," Time (October 2)

1971 Hayden Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ontario Science Center, Toronto Galérie Françoise Mayer, Brussels University of Pittsburgh Michael Berger Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA

1971 Irmeline Lebeer, "Les Sculptures Cybernetiques de Wen-Ying Tsai," Chroniques de L'Art Vivant 26 (December) Nicolas Calas, lcons+lmages of the Sixties. Ed. Dutton.

In the early 1970s, Tsai moved with his family to Paris and showed with the Denise René Gallery and had extensive exhibitions in Europe. During these years, he befriended fellow Chinese artists residing in Paris including Peng Wan-Ts and Chu Teh-Chun and became very passionate about cultural exchange between China and the West. In 1979, Tsai and his friend the composer Wen-chung Chou were part of the first delegation of artists from the US to the People's Republic of China. This eventually lead Tsai and his wife Pei-De to establish The Committee for Chinese Artists Intercultural Movement (CCAIM), a pioneering non-profit organization that brought mainland Chinese artists to exhibit in the United States in the 1980s. After Paris, Tsai settled permanently in New York City. In 2006, Tsai and Pei-De established the Tsai Art and Science Foundation to support and bring awareness to endeavors that are at the intersection of the arts and sciences.

The Tsai family spent part of the 1970s in Paris before settling down permanently in SoHo, New York where they lived in a loft space that they renovated themselves. Richard Kostelanetz has written about the Tsais in SoHo in his book SoHo: The Rise and Fall of an Artists' Colony.

1970 Alpha Gallery Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany

1970 "Explorations," National Collection of Fine Arts, 1/2 (May). B. E. Bradin. "Tsai-bernetics," Boston Arts, 3/6 (June). Frank Popper, L'Art cinetique. Gautier-Villars.

In 1969, Tsai was invited by György Kepes to the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT. There, amongst the "first Fellows", a lively group of like-minded artists (including Jack Burnham, Otto Piene, Takis, Harold Tovish, Stan VanDerBeek), Tsai met Harold "Doc" Edgerton, the engineer who developed the modern electronic stroboscope.

1969 "Cybernetic Serendipity," Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC "Howard Lipman Collection," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. "Master Pieces of Modern Art," Galerie Denise Rene/Hans Mayer, Krefeld, Germany. "Explorations," Hayden Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 3e Salon International des Galeries Pilotes, Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts, Lausanne Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris. Pittsburgh International, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh. "Struktur Schwingung Dynarnik," Kunsthalle, Nuremberg. "L'Art et les Technologies," Ville de Vitry-sur-Seine, France. "Multiple Interaction Team," Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago "Salon International des Composants Electroniques," Paris. "Custom and Culture," US Custom House, New York. "Art of the Space Era," Huntsville Museum of Art, Alabama. "The Expanding Visual World," The Museum of Fun, Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo.

1969 J. Chandler, "Art in the Electric Age," Art International Xlll/2 (February). F. Newgan, "Die Maschine in der Kunst," Kunstweek 22/43 (February). Jonathan Benthall, "Cybernetic Sculpture of Tsai," Studio International, 177/909 (March).

Jonathan Benthall was one of the first to appreciate Tsai's sculpture. In 1968, he wrote:

1968 "Cybernetic Serendipity," Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. "The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age", Museum of Modern Art, New York

1968 Tsai, Cybernetic Sculpture at Howard Wise Gallery, Arts Magazine 42/8 (Summer). "Some More Beginnings," Experiments in Art and Technology. New York. A. S. Parisi, "The Kinetic Movement: Technology Paces the Arts," Product Engineering 39/25 (December). D. K. Merris, "The Engineer and His Profession," Product Engineering 39/25 (December). K. G. Pontus-Hulten, The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age. exhibition catalog, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Tsai met his wife, Pei-De Chang, in New York City in 1967. They were married in London in 1968 during the Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition in which Tsai participated. The couple had twin sons two years later when Tsai was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT; their friend Otto Piene is fond of recalling that the Tsais' twins were the first of the "Center babies."

Unsatisfied with his static sculptures, Tsai began to introduce movement using motors. He created Multi-kinetic Wall in 1965, which was exhibited in Art Turned On at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.

But it was ultimately during a fellowship at the Edward MacDowell Colony in 1965 that Tsai had his "Eureka!" moment. While contemplating the sunlight shimmering in the trees, he had a sudden insight to use his engineering background to create art work that replicates natural phenomena. Finding a starting point in the work of constructivist artist Naum Gabo, Tsai took a quantum leap deciding that "the shimmering was not enough" and that what was needed was a way that the viewer could interact with the work. It was that inspiration that eventually lead him to the idea to use a stroboscope coupled with a feedback control system.

1965 "The Responsive Eye," Museum of Modern Art, New York "The New Eyes," Chrysler Art Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts City Art Museum of St. Louis "Art in Science," Albany Institute of History and Art "Art Turned On," Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. "Art in Science," organized by Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC National Academy of Science, Washington, DC

In 1963, Tsai won a John Hay Whitney Fellowship for Painting, after which he decided to leave engineering and devote full-time to the arts. After a three-month trip in Europe, he returned to New York and began to make three-dimensional constructions using optical effects, fluorescent paints, and ultra-violet light. These wary works were later selected for The Responsive Eye, an exhibition curated by William Seitz at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Wen-Ying Tsai (Chinese: 蔡文穎; pinyin: Cài Wényǐng; Wade–Giles: Ts'ai Wen-ying; October 13, 1928 – January 2, 2013) was a Chinese-American pioneer cybernetic sculptor and kinetic artist best known for creating sculptures using electric motors, stainless steel rods, stroboscopic light, and audio feedback control. As one of the first Chinese-born artists to achieve international recognition in the 1960s, Tsai was an inspiration to generations of Chinese artists around the world.

Wen-Ying Tsai was born in 1928 in Xiamen, Fujian, China, and emigrated to the United States in 1950, where he attended the University of Michigan, receiving a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering (BSME) in 1953. Moving to New York City after graduation, Tsai embarked on a successful career as an architectural engineer working for clients such as Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Synergetics, and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. While working as an engineer by day, Tsai pursued artistic studies at the Art Students League at night, while also taking courses in political science and economics at the New School for Social Research. Tsai also attended modern dance classes with Erick Hawkins.