Martin Wong
Encyclopedia
Martin Wong was a U.S. painter
of the late twentieth century.
and raised in the Chinatown
district of San Francisco, California
. He studied ceramics at Humboldt State University
, graduating in 1968. Through college and for another 10 years he was active in the San Francisco Bay Area
art scene, including stints as a set designer for the performance art
groups The Cockettes
and Angels of Light. He was openly
gay
.
In 1978 he moved to Manhattan
, eventually settling in the Lower East Side
, where his attention turned exclusively to painting. According to Wong, his move to New York was precipitated by a friendly challenge:
y depictions of New York's and San Francisco's Chinatowns, to "traffic signs for the hearing impaired". He is perhaps best known for his collaborations with Nuyorican
poet Miguel Piñero
, paintings that often combined Piñero's poetry or prose with Wong's painstaking cityscapes and stylized fingerspelling
. Wong's Loisaida
pieces and collaborations with Piñero form part of the Nuyorican arts movement
.
Wong was a collector and connoisseur of everything from graffiti
to Asian antiquities
. For a time in the 1980s he made ends meet by buying underpriced antiquities at Christie's
and selling them at Sotheby's
for a fairer price. His graffiti collection grew to be perhaps the largest in the world; in 1993 he donated it to the Museum of the City of New York
.
Once nearly overlooked by the art establishment, Wong was acknowledged in his New York Times
obituary as an artist "whose meticulous visionary realism is among the lasting legacies of New York's East Village art scene of the 1980s". Critical esteem has sustained since his death, and Wong's works can be found in collections worldwide, including the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
, the de Young Museum and the cities of New York and San Francisco. The Martin Wong Papers reside at the Fales Library, New York University
, and include among other things sketchbooks, correspondence, biographical documents, videocassette recordings, photos, graffiti-related materials, and parts of Wong's personal library.
The catalog of a joint exhibition of Wong's work at the New Museum of Contemporary Art
and the Illinois State University
Galleries was published by Rizzoli in 1998 in Sweet Oblivion: The Urban Landscape of Martin Wong.
Two of Martin Wong's paintings are in the collection of the Whitney Museum in New York City. One of his paintings is in the collection of the state of California and displayed permanently at the California State Building in
San Francisco.
, credited with his success in the barrios of New York City, died a decade earlier in 1988.
Visual arts of the United States
American art encompasses the history of painting and visual art in the United States. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, artists primarily painted landscapes and portraits in a realistic style. A parallel development taking shape in rural America was the American craft movement,...
of the late twentieth century.
Early years
Wong was born in Portland, OregonPortland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
and raised in the Chinatown
Chinatown
A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
district of San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. He studied ceramics at Humboldt State University
Humboldt State University
Humboldt State University is the northernmost campus of the California State University system, located in Arcata within Humboldt County, California, USA. The main campus, nestled at the edge of a coast redwood forest, is situated on Preston hill overlooking Arcata and with commanding views of...
, graduating in 1968. Through college and for another 10 years he was active in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
art scene, including stints as a set designer for the performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
groups The Cockettes
The Cockettes
The Cockettes were a psychedelic drag queen troupe founded by Hibiscus in the late 1960s in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood. The troupe performed outrageous parodies of show tunes and gained an underground cult following that led to mainstream exposure.In 1971, over differences in...
and Angels of Light. He was openly
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
.
In 1978 he moved to Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, eventually settling in the Lower East Side
Lower East Side, Manhattan
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
, where his attention turned exclusively to painting. According to Wong, his move to New York was precipitated by a friendly challenge:
Career
Wong's mature work ranged from gritty, heartfelt renderings of the decaying Lower East Side, to playful, almost kitschKitsch
Kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...
y depictions of New York's and San Francisco's Chinatowns, to "traffic signs for the hearing impaired". He is perhaps best known for his collaborations with Nuyorican
Nuyorican
Nuyorican is a portmanteau of the terms "New York" and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Rican diaspora located in or around New York State especially the New York City metropolitan area, or of their descendants...
poet Miguel Piñero
Miguel Piñero
Miguel Piñero was a Puerto Rican playwright, actor, and co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café. He was a leading member of the Nuyorican literary movement.-Early years:...
, paintings that often combined Piñero's poetry or prose with Wong's painstaking cityscapes and stylized fingerspelling
Fingerspelling
Fingerspelling is the representation of the letters of a writing system, and sometimes numeral systems, using only the hands. These manual alphabets , have often been used in deaf education, and have subsequently been adopted as a distinct part of a number of sign languages around the world...
. Wong's Loisaida
Loisaida
Loisaida is a term derived from the Latino pronunciation of "Lower East Side", a neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. The term was originally coined by poet/activist Bittman "Bimbo" Rivas in his 1974 poem "Loisaida"...
pieces and collaborations with Piñero form part of the Nuyorican arts movement
Nuyorican Movement
The Nuyorican Movement is a cultural and intellectual movement involving poets, writers, musicians and artists who are Puerto Rican or of Puerto Rican descent, who live in or near New York City, and either call themselves or are known as Nuyoricans...
.
Wong was a collector and connoisseur of everything from graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
to Asian antiquities
Antiquities
Antiquities, nearly always used in the plural in this sense, is a term for objects from Antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures...
. For a time in the 1980s he made ends meet by buying underpriced antiquities at Christie's
Christie's
Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
and selling them at Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
for a fairer price. His graffiti collection grew to be perhaps the largest in the world; in 1993 he donated it to the Museum of the City of New York
Museum of the City of New York
The Museum of the City of New York is an art gallery and history museum founded in 1923 to present the history of New York City, USA and its people...
.
Once nearly overlooked by the art establishment, Wong was acknowledged in his New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
obituary as an artist "whose meticulous visionary realism is among the lasting legacies of New York's East Village art scene of the 1980s". Critical esteem has sustained since his death, and Wong's works can be found in collections worldwide, including the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, the de Young Museum and the cities of New York and San Francisco. The Martin Wong Papers reside at the Fales Library, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, and include among other things sketchbooks, correspondence, biographical documents, videocassette recordings, photos, graffiti-related materials, and parts of Wong's personal library.
The catalog of a joint exhibition of Wong's work at the New Museum of Contemporary Art
New Museum of Contemporary Art
The New Museum, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is the only museum in New York City exclusively devoted to presenting contemporary art from around the world...
and the Illinois State University
Illinois State University
Illinois State University , founded in 1857, is the oldest public university in Illinois; it is located in the town of Normal. ISU is considered a "national university" that grants a variety of doctoral degrees and strongly emphasizes research; it is also recognized as one of the top ten largest...
Galleries was published by Rizzoli in 1998 in Sweet Oblivion: The Urban Landscape of Martin Wong.
Two of Martin Wong's paintings are in the collection of the Whitney Museum in New York City. One of his paintings is in the collection of the state of California and displayed permanently at the California State Building in
San Francisco.
Personal life
Wong died in San Francisco from an AIDS related illness in 1999. His former partner, Miguel PiñeroMiguel Piñero
Miguel Piñero was a Puerto Rican playwright, actor, and co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café. He was a leading member of the Nuyorican literary movement.-Early years:...
, credited with his success in the barrios of New York City, died a decade earlier in 1988.
External links
- P.P.O.W Gallery, The Estate of Martin Wong
- The Fales Library of NYU's Guide to the Martin Wong Papers
- Art Inside the HSU Library
- Martin Wong's page at artnet.com, including pictures of his work
- Public art project completed while resident at NYC Department of Transportation
- Public art project for Percent for Art in NYC
- Description of holdings at the Museum of the City of New York, including the Martin Wong Collection (graffiti)