Ching Ho Cheng Joins the SCMA Collection

Yao Wu, Jane Chace Carroll Curator of Asian Art, introduces new acquisitions of Asian American artist Ching Ho Cheng that are currently featured in SCMA Then\Now\Next.

Even though Asians make up about 7% of the U.S. overall population, the percentage of Asian American artists represented in almost any significant American art collection is far below that. In 2018, SCMA was fortunate to be able to add to the museum’s collection 11 works by the late Asian American artist Ching Ho Cheng, representing
different stages and aspects of his rich practice. Two of them—The Certainty of Blue IX from Torn Works Series and Untitled from Alchemical Series—are currently on view in the centennial exhibition, SCMA Then\Now\Next.

Torn Works was a series developed when Cheng ripped up an unsatisfactory drawing and discovered the simultaneously destructive and constructive power found in the act of tearing. Caves and grottos Cheng saw on his trip to Turkey inspired the Alchemical Series. He simulated the oxidation process by affixing iron or copper powder to paper, which was then submerged in vinegar water to create rust on the surface.

In addition to texture and abstraction, Cheng was fascinated with symbolism. The curved shapes represented passageways to the afterlife. The blue color and rust reminded him of spirituality and permanence. Cheng’s nascent queerness was also reflected in his work that promised regeneration and sought to transcend heterosexist categorization.

Descended from a prominent family in China, Ching Ho Cheng was born in 1946 in Havana where his father served as a diplomat. He moved with the family to New York in 1951, studied at the Cooper Union School of Art in the mid-1960s, and was part of a generation involved in alternative lifestyles and civil movements. He unfortunately passed away from AIDS-related causes in 1989. Despite his short life, Cheng’s legacy as an Asian American artist active on the 20th-century New York art scene, when such representation was largely absent, is long lasting. Check out Ching Ho Cheng’s torn and alchemical works on the museum’s lower level before the SCMA Then\Now\Next exhibition comes down soon!