Ching Ho Cheng

An American of Chinese descent, Ching Ho Cheng was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1946.[1] Cheng was the son of Chiang Kai-shek's last ambassador to Cuba. During the mid-1960s he studied painting at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York City, and during the early seventies lived in Paris and Amsterdam, where, in 1976, he had his first one-man show. Cheng returned to New York that same year and checked into the Chelsea Hotel intending to remain for two months; he lived and worked there until his death in May 1989. Rosa von Praunheim portrayed Cheng in his studio in the Chelsea Hotel for his award-winning film Tally Brown, New York (1979).

Untitled, 1987. Alchemical Works, Torso Series. Iron oxide on paper. 42 1/2 X 34 1/4" Detroit Institute of Arts.

Ching Ho Cheng created artwork from torn paper. To create these variously scaled abstract pieces, Cheng applied iron powder to torn paper which was sealed with waterproof layers of gesso, mat medium and modelling paste employed to create a sense of relief. He used a special catalyst to begin a lengthy chemical process of transforming the iron into rust. The paper was soaked in water for days and dried, acquiring a hard surface. Cheng controlled the process by deciding when to remove the paper from the bath. Cheng would sometimes resoak the paper in order to obtain the desired surface and textural coloration. He manipulated viscous surfaces with the smaller works and hoped to achieve a greater impasto with the larger torn paper pieces, as these pieces had a tendency to break if too heavily laden.[2]

At a time when Asian-Americans were nearly absent from the contemporary art scene, Cheng was highly regarded by peers and by prominent art historians such as Gert Schiff and Henry Geldzahler, the first curator of twentieth-century art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Notable collectors of his work are Miles Davis, Louise Fletcher, Aldo Cipullo, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Alfonso Ossorio, Peggy Cooper Cafritz, Countess Claude de Lesse and others. Cheng exhibited his work extensively in New York and overseas.

Ching Ho Cheng's personal letters, photos, drawings and artifacts are housed at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art in Washington, DC.

• Whitney Museum of American Art
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
• Cleveland Museum of Art
• The Phillips Collection
• Smithsonian American Art Museum
• Brooklyn Museum
• Montclair Art Museum
• Detroit Institute of Arts
• Minneapolis Institute of Art
• Grey Art Gallery
• Everson Museum of Art
• Smith College Museum of Art