CHING HO CHENG

1946 – 1989


Infinity in a Peach Pit: My Brother’s Quest for the Eternal

Ching Ho Cheng was born in 1946 to a family of government officials. His father, Paifong Robert Cheng, held the diplomatic post representing the Republic of China in Havana, Cuba during the 1940s, his mother Rosita 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 of Versailles. The new regime emerging in China under Mao Zedong made it impossible for the Cheng Family to return to their country. When they arrived in 1950, Ching was one of 105 Chinese immigrants who entered the U.S. under the quota of the Magnuson Act (1943-1965). As a result, this generation of Chinese American artists are largely absent from our historical archives.

Although Ching Ho was his first name, he went by just “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 Long Island Press featured him on the front page of the newspaper. This was the beginning of his interest in art, he spent his summers studying at the Arts Students League before matriculating to the Cooper Union School of Art. His college years were marked by the Vietnam War and its draft. The war was widely protested and in 1967 over 100,000 demonstrators attended a rally against the war at the Lincoln Memorial in DC. This was the turning point for Ching, at which he found solace in Taoism that would become predominant in his life and open his mind to the metaphysical. It became a subtle, but noticeable, presence in his entire body of work.

Ching lived in the East Village during the 1960s Hippie movement and in Soho during the 70s. Eventually, he landed at the Chelsea Hotel where the manager Stanley Bard would rent Ching different apartments; often he would move into larger studios to accommodate larger paintings. Stanley also allowed artists to pay their rent late which made it very attractive to artists. Ching was extremely disciplined, one winter he worked in a Soho loft that had no heat, he managed to paint 7 hours a day wearing his fingerless gloves. As far back as I can remember, my brother simply loved to paint; it meant everything to him, and it was obvious he would become an artist. Downtown was the creative mecca of New York in those days. Ching would meet the most interesting artists and friends that were both American and international at Max’s Kansas City (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 and exchange ideas. Scores of projects originated from hanging out at Max’s and the Chelsea.

Ching Ho Cheng worked primarily on paper. His work is divided into four distinct periods, the Psychedelics, Gouache, Torn Works, and Alchemical Works. Although they appear completely different in painting style, there is a symbiotic relationship that connects all four periods. After graduating from the Cooper Union School of Art he began his dynamic psychedelic series using gouache and ink as a medium. He was greatly inspired by the spiritual symbolism in Tibetan art. The use of the mandala in his “X Triptych” depicts eight rings (Panel II), each one forming Ching’s own guiding principles and ideas. The blue cord in Panel III of the triptych that connects to the astral baby is the thread of life to the next chakra. The same cord reappears in “Glossolalia” and “Angel Head” as well, it is also known as the silver cord which connects your body to the next realm. Eventually upon death the threads break, and you move 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 essence of life. He would complete every series of his work with a master painting. It is the culmination of all previous paintings in that series. “The Astral Theatre” is the master work of the psychedelics.

In his next series Ching was ready to paint without “explosions” as he put it. The psychedelics were extremely complex in composition and execution, often taking months to complete, but he was primed to discover an opposing style of implementation. He wished to attain the “subtlety” in his painting that he admired in Picasso’s Bull. Thus, the Gouache Works became his second series in this artistic journey. Here you will see the everyday objects he painted - a peach, a light bulb, a match, a palmetto leaf, these are Ching’s still lifes. They are imbued with metaphysical attributes that he hoped the viewer would experience through his work. The peach is a common symbol for longevity and immortality in Chinese philosophy. A palmetto leaf signifies peace and eternal life in the Mediterranean region. In many spiritual and religious practices around the world the “light” serves as a symbol for “hope and happiness.” As Ching approached the end of the series, the master work evolved into either a shadow or luminous white light painted on paper. There is a transcendental element in his work, a pureness that I can only describe as peace.

As a general rule, Ching rarely kept any of his work that he felt did not meet his level of perfection. Instead, he would simply tear it to pieces. I remember being shocked each time I would see him do this. He could easily destroy something that he might have worked on for weeks. It was this act alone that led him to his third phase of his work: The Torn Works. They are strikingly bold and were created during the AIDS epidemic when many of his friends tragically died. Ching would often visit his psychic friend Frank Andrews for readings. It was Frank who suggested Ching use the colors blue for the spirit and serenity, and green for rebirth and renewal. Both colors are intrinsic to these works. Ching was first introduced to the monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. This movie had become a cult film in 1968, the year Ching graduated from Cooper Union. Coincidentally the monolith form appears in all of Ching’s black and blue torn works in a graphite medium. These works transform time, and when I look at these torn abstract works, I am stepping into another realm.

It was on a trip to Turkey in 1981 that Ching discovered the stunning Turkish grottos. What was to follow, was to be his last series, the Alchemical Works. He found the caves to be utterly sublime and wanted to recreate this natural phenomenon in his artwork. He was impressed with the beauty and sustainability of the caves over hundreds of years. With a great deal of research and practice, Ching was able to replicate these incredible grottos in his studio at the Chelsea Hotel. His Alchemical Works were created by using iron oxide and gesso on paper. They were naturally processed to generate rust and texture by soaking the work in a man-made pool that the hotel allowed him to construct. These torn rust pieces marinated over a period of weeks until they became three dimensional and sculptural. This would be Ching’s final master work, “The Grotto,” a huge arc 10 feet tall that spans a length of 25 feet. It is magnificent and monumental. It seems quite fitting that this would be Ching’s last master work before he died, for as Ching said, “these paintings are intimations of the “miraculous”. The meaning is for the beholder to discover…

Sybao Cheng-Wilson