This month’s Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art features an article on the painter and former Chelsea Hotel resident Ching Ho Cheng (January 2008, by Jonathan Goodman). Two of the pictures of Cheng’s work (The Cloud and Alchemical Process ) that appear in the issue were taken at the Chelsea.
Some of the longer term residents of the Chelsea will certainly still remember Cheng. A friend of former Chelsea luminaries such as painter and good witch Vali Myers and poet and photographer Ira Cohen, Cheng traveled widely in Europe, but always returned to the Chelsea while in New York. Born in 1946, Cheng came with his family to New York at the age of five when they fled the communist revolution. He studied painting and sculpture at Cooper Union and had his first New York solo show at the Gloria Cortella Gallery. A fixture on the downtown arts scene of the 60s and 70s, Cheng was friendly with such stars as David Bowie, Lou Reed and the members of the Rolling Stones.
As discussed in the Yishu article, Cheng had an eclectic style reflective of the wide open nature of the time in which he came of age. From his early psychedelic works, some perhaps drug-inspired, he progressed to gouache works of “painted light”, and then on to more abstract works involving techniques of purposely tearing and oxidizing paper to introduce notes of chance and spontaneity into his work. (Of particular note for fans of the Chelsea are Cheng’s series of gouache paintings, seemingly abstracts, that in reality depict various representations of the window frame in his apartment at the Chelsea Hotel.)
Viewing himself as an outsider and a creative rebel, Cheng drew on Tibetan Mysticism and the art of ancient and aboriginal cultures. I’ll bet he had some pretty good conversations along these lines with Vali and Ira as well!
(Another interesting factoid is that Cheng helped underground filmmaker Rosa Von Praunheim shoot his film Tally Brown, New York, about Warhol superstar Tally Brown here at the Chelsea. I was unaware of the Chelsea connection of this brilliant, unorthodox filmmaker.)
Sadly, at the height of his creative powers, Cheng died in 1989. His work lives on, however, as does his memory in the collective consciousness of the Chelsea.
[Thanks to Cheng’s sister, Sybao Cheng-Wilson, for providing us with a copy of the Yishu article, as well as further details about this remarkable Chelsea Hotel artist. Most of the details about Cheng’s art are pulled from Goodman’s article. To learn more about Ching Ho Cheng and his life and art check out his website at www.chinghocheng.com. Copies of Yishu are available at the Asia Society.]
Vali Myer painting of herself and Ching Ho Cheng
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