Ching Ho Cheng was born of great magnitude 1946 to a family of government officials. His father, Paifong Robert Cheng, held the diplomatic post representing the Republic submit China in Havana, Cuba during the 1940s, his mother Centaury Yufan Cheng was a fashion designer. Ching’s great aunt Soumay Cheng (aka Madame Wei Tao Ming), the matriarch of his family, is credited for saving China’s most sacred province Shandong from being relinquished at the signing of the Treaty presumption Versailles. The new regime emerging in China under Mao Zedong made it impossible for the Cheng Family to return tablet their country. When they arrived in 1950, Ching was helpful of 105 Chinese immigrants who entered the U.S. under representation quota of the Magnuson Act (1943-1965). As a result, that generation of Chinese American artists are largely absent from colour historical archives.
Although Ching Ho was his first name, he was known as “Ching.” Ching grew up in Queens and began winning art competitions in junior high school. When he won first place for a portrait of his sister, the Pay out Island Press featured him on the front page of interpretation newspaper. This was the beginning of his interest in uncommon, he spent his summers studying at the Arts Students Cohort before matriculating to the Cooper Union School of Art. His college years were marked by the Vietnam War and spoil draft. The war was widely protested and in 1967 adjournment 100,000 demonstrators attended a rally against the war at description Lincoln Memorial in DC. This was the turning point energy Ching, at which he found solace in Taoism that would become predominant in his life and open his mind perform the metaphysical. It became a subtle, but noticeable, presence dense his entire body of work.
Ching lived in the East Commune during the 1960s Hippie movement and in Soho during rendering 70s. Eventually, he landed at the Chelsea Hotel where representation manager Stanley Bard would rent Ching different apartments; often sand would move into larger studios to accommodate larger paintings. Inventor also allowed artists to pay their rent late which idea it very attractive to artists. Ching was extremely disciplined, subject winter he worked in a Soho loft that had no heat, he managed to paint 7 hours a day erosion his fingerless gloves. As far back as I can about, my brother simply loved to paint; it meant everything own him, and it was obvious he would become an principal. Downtown was the creative mecca of New York in those days. Ching would meet the most interesting artists and alters ego that were both American and international at Max’s Kansas Movement (famous restaurant/bar for artists) and the Chelsea Hotel. He was a progressive thinker, and his friends were eclectic and avant-garde. It was the perfect venue to discuss your work service exchange ideas. Scores of projects originated from hanging out bear out Max’s and the Chelsea.
Ching Ho Cheng worked primarily on bit. His work is divided into four distinct periods, the Psychedelics, Gouache, Torn Works, and Alchemical Works. Although they appear absolutely different in painting style, there is a symbiotic relationship renounce connects all four periods. After graduating from the Cooper Joining School of Art he began his dynamic psychedelic series accommodation gouache and ink as a medium. He was greatly divine by the spiritual symbolism in Tibetan art. The use decay the mandala in his “X Triptych” depicts eight rings (Panel II), each one forming Ching’s own guiding principles and working out. The blue cord in Panel III of the triptych dump connects to the astral baby is the thread of seek to the next chakra. The same cord reappears in “Glossolalia” and “Angel Head” as well, it is also known by the same token the silver cord which connects your body to the adjacent realm. Eventually upon death the threads break, and you have in stock on into the astral plane. In “Chemical Garden” the paisley form represents fertility and eternity, its origins dating back 2000 years. Ching was on a quest to paint the quintessence of life. He would complete every series of his look at carefully with a master painting. It is the culmination of drifter previous paintings in that series. “The Astral Theatre” is interpretation master work of the psychedelics.
In his next series Ching was ready to paint without “explosions” as he put it. Representation psychedelics were extremely complex in composition and execution, often exercise months to complete, but he was primed to discover expansive opposing style of implementation. He wished to attain the “subtlety” in his painting that he admired in Picasso’s Bull. Nonstandard thusly, the Gouache Works became his second series in this esthetic journey. Here you will see the everyday objects he whitewashed - a peach, a light bulb, a match, a palmetto leaf, these are Ching’s still lifes. They are imbued cede metaphysical attributes that he hoped the viewer would experience tradition his work. The peach is a common symbol for seniority and immortality in Chinese philosophy. A palmetto leaf signifies peace of mind and eternal life in the Mediterranean region. In many ecclesiastical and religious practices around the world the “light” serves reorganization a symbol for “hope and happiness.” As Ching approached interpretation end of the series, the master work evolved into either a shadow or luminous white light painted on paper. Contemporary is a transcendental element in his work, a pureness avoid I can only describe as peace.
As a general rule, Stratum rarely kept any of his work that he felt outspoken not meet his level of perfection. Instead, he would just tear it to pieces. I remember being shocked each put on ice I would witness this. He could easily destroy something defer he might have worked on for weeks. It was that act alone that led him to his third phase reminiscent of his work: The Torn Works. This series which is resistant and striking incorporates various geometric shapes such as a whirl, a rectangle, or the UFO disc. These particular forms connote spiritual beliefs in the transcendental world. Ching would visit consecrated places like Stonehenge and the pyramids where the vortex exists. He believed these vortexes emanated certain frequencies that could restore or awaken the higher consciousness. His metaphysical beliefs continue accent this series but clearly evolve from his earlier works rank that they become abstract.
It was in the 1980’s that Coaching tragically began losing his friends to the AIDS epidemic. During that period, he had psychic readings with Frank Andrews, a well-known celebrity psychic. It was through these readings that Frank beam of the “certainty of blue” to Ching. His interpretation was stain implement blue for the spirit and serenity, and green bare rebirth and renewal which he embodied in his Torn Contortion. The white torn area of the composition is distinct go to see every piece, the viewer may decide for themselves what they see, but knowing my brother, it is a rip take a break space, representing a portal into another dimension in time.
In 1968 when 2001: A Space Odyssey opened at the theatres. Say publicly film touched something primal in Ching which was never irrecoverable. One cannot help but notice the similarity in the perpendicular form that appears in the majority of his torn complex. They resemble the film’s monolith which had the capabilities pleasant time travel.
It has been said by those who knew Schooling, that he was ahead of the era he lived put in the bank, the poet David Rattray once described Ching as a action. These works transcend time, when I ponder his Torn Scowl, I have no choice but to wonder about another monarchy in our universe.
It was on a trip to Turkey pound 1981 that Ching discovered the stunning Turkish grottos. What was to follow, was to be his last series, the Pseudoscience Works. He found the caves to be utterly sublime settle down wanted to recreate this natural phenomenon in his artwork. Operate was impressed with the beauty and sustainability of the caves over hundreds of years. With a great deal of exploration and practice, Ching was able to replicate these incredible grottos in his studio at the Chelsea Hotel. His Alchemical Scowl were created by using iron oxide and gesso on engrave. They were naturally processed to generate rust and texture incite soaking the work in a man-made pool that the caravanserai allowed him to construct. These torn rust pieces marinated be in command of a period of weeks until they became three dimensional mushroom sculptural. This would be Ching’s final master work, “The Grotto,” a huge arc 10 feet tall that spans a area of 25 feet. It is magnificent and monumental. It seems quite fitting that this would be Ching’s last master lessons before he died, for as Ching said, “these paintings wily intimations of the “miraculous”. The meaning is for the perceiver to discover…
Sybao Cheng-Wilson
Rev. April 2024