Artist: Martin Wong
Title: Fan Club
Size: 13.5 x 10.5 Inches
Medium: Graphite on Paper
Edition: Original
Year: 1976
Notes: Unsigned. Comes with Original Purchase Information.
About: Martin Wong’s haunting paintings combine the leftist politics of social realism with a cosmic, transcendent symbology; brick walls and constellations are frequent motifs. A fixture of New York’s East Village art scene in the 1980s, the largely self-taught artist often focused on the city’s blighted downtown landscape. He imbued row houses and ruins with a sense of magic as he considered the intersections of race, sexuality, and history in his urban environment. Wong exhibited extensively in New York before his death in 1999, and his work has been included in exhibitions at the New Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, and The Bass, among other institutions. Wong’s paintings have sold for six-figure prices on the secondary market.
Condition: Sheet was removed from a spiral bound artist's pad; left side of work retains remnants of perforated edge. Handling marks and creases. Some light staining along lower right edge. Spots of foxing primarily along upper edge and right edge. An additional 5 3/4 inches of the sheet was folded over on its right, assumed to be the artist's intention.