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Lot Essay
Graffiti and the urban landscape of New York’s Lower East Side offered some of the greatest inspiration for the artist Martin Wong’s career. The subject of a recent critically acclaimed retrospective organized by the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Wong moved to the city from the West Coast in 1978--already in his 30s and an established ceramicist-- Wong began to focus increasingly on painting as he was influenced by the street artists of his new environment. It was during this time that Wong became an increasingly important figure in the art scene and began to experience success as a painter. Wong’s paintings address many of the same themes as his graffiti artist contemporaries, yet in an entirely different way. Rather than working with neon colors, cartoonish figures and playful text, Wong’s realistic works provide a darker, more honest reflection of his environment. His work serves as documentary evidence of the neighborhood in which Wong and his contemporaries like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring lived, work and drew inspiration for their art.
Wong’s paintings from the 1980s of his urban environment in New York offer both a realistic yet romantic view of his reality. Window Gate Diptych from 1988 presents the closed gate of a shop window, bolted with four padlocks. Whether the entryway in Window Gate Diptych is locked due to foreclosure or simply because it is late at night, the work encourages pensive reflection on the part of the viewer. Despite the closed subject, Wong offers hope through his use of gold paint that shimmers off the surface of the barred entryway. This optimistic portrayal of a simple and unglamorous subject became a defining characteristic of Wong’s New York paintings. Despite the realistic nature of his compositions, Wong never failed to offer the viewer a glimmer of hope such as is detectable through the inclusion of the golden gates in Window Gate Diptych. For example, his acclaimed Big Heat from 1988 depicts two firemen in front of a dilapidated burning building locked in a kiss. Wong included more subtle signs of hope—such as lines of poetry and starry skies in other compositions. A similar work to Window Gate Diptych, entitled Closed from 1984-85, resides in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Wong’s meticulous attention to detail in Window Gate Diptych, particularly evident in its exceptionally realistic shadows, extends beyond simple trompe l’oeil. Wong’s work reflects his unique perspective of being a Chinese-American homosexual male artist during the 1970s and 1980s in the “Loisaida” neighborhood. Graffiti and the urban landscape of the Lower East Side so impacted Wong that he collected hundreds of graffiti works (eventually donated to the Museum of the City of New York) and co-created the short-lived Museum of American Graffiti in 1989 to elevate the artistic status of the then-unrecognized art medium.
Wong’s paintings from the 1980s of his urban environment in New York offer both a realistic yet romantic view of his reality. Window Gate Diptych from 1988 presents the closed gate of a shop window, bolted with four padlocks. Whether the entryway in Window Gate Diptych is locked due to foreclosure or simply because it is late at night, the work encourages pensive reflection on the part of the viewer. Despite the closed subject, Wong offers hope through his use of gold paint that shimmers off the surface of the barred entryway. This optimistic portrayal of a simple and unglamorous subject became a defining characteristic of Wong’s New York paintings. Despite the realistic nature of his compositions, Wong never failed to offer the viewer a glimmer of hope such as is detectable through the inclusion of the golden gates in Window Gate Diptych. For example, his acclaimed Big Heat from 1988 depicts two firemen in front of a dilapidated burning building locked in a kiss. Wong included more subtle signs of hope—such as lines of poetry and starry skies in other compositions. A similar work to Window Gate Diptych, entitled Closed from 1984-85, resides in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Wong’s meticulous attention to detail in Window Gate Diptych, particularly evident in its exceptionally realistic shadows, extends beyond simple trompe l’oeil. Wong’s work reflects his unique perspective of being a Chinese-American homosexual male artist during the 1970s and 1980s in the “Loisaida” neighborhood. Graffiti and the urban landscape of the Lower East Side so impacted Wong that he collected hundreds of graffiti works (eventually donated to the Museum of the City of New York) and co-created the short-lived Museum of American Graffiti in 1989 to elevate the artistic status of the then-unrecognized art medium.