Born in New York, New York and currently resides there. Trained in New York, and apprentice with C.C. Wang; U.C. Berkley.
Arnold Chang has chosen to respond to Jackson Pollock’s Number 10 from the MFA collection, an excellent example of Pollock’s revolutionary drip technique. Chang uses this opportunity to invite comparisons between traditional Chinese brush painting and action painting, both of which emphasize the physicality of the artist’s touch. As a Chinese-American and the only American-born painter in this show, Chang has described this project as “a perfect vehicle through which I may further integrate my American psyche with my Chinese psyche."
Chang has painted a handscroll of a landscape in response to Pollock’s Number 10, focusing not only on compositional resonance, but also on integrating the fluid motion of Pollock’s brushwork in a Chinese landscape idiom. In addition, one of Chang’s early sketches will be on display, which will illustrate the creative process and show the evolution of the composition. Chang plans to lay Number 10 flat during the exhibition, forcing viewers to face the work as if it were a Chinese handscroll.
Secluded Valley in the Cold Mountains, ink on paper, 2008
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), Number 10, oil, enamel and aluminum paint on canvas mounted on panel, 1949
Detail from Secluded Valley in the Cold Mountains, ink on paper, 2008
Artist's brushwork study for reorienting Pollock
