Born in 1921 in Beijing. In 1949, he graduated from Illinois State University School of Architecture in the United States. In 1952, he held his first exhibition at the Museum of Art of the MIT. In 1959, the British art critic Michael Sullivan called him "The Most Creative Chinese Painter". In 1963, the Tung Hai University Luce Chapel he designed which was completed and considered of great significance by the international architectural world. Chen Chi-kwan is one of the few examples of artists who successfully brought in Western influence to enrich Oriental art. Using his special training in Western style watercolor and graphic design, he blended Chinese traditional calligraphy and brush painting to provide Chinese Painting with an entirely new appearance. Among his works, those that resulted form his "multi-viewpoint" played up the importance of space time duality, continuing the space time tradition of Chinese Landscape painting tradition down from the Han and Tang dynasties.