MARTIN WONG (1946-1999)

Just once before I die
I want to climb up on a
tenement sky
to dream my lungs out till
I cry
then scatter my ashes thru
the Lower East Side.
Miguel Piñero, A Lower East Side Poem, 1978

Acquired by the present owner in the year it was painted, Martin Wong’s Portrait of Mikey Piñero at Ridge Street and Stanton captures the energy, dynamism, and emotional resonance of New York’s Lower East Side in the 1980s. Yet, this large-scale canvas is not only a landscape, it is also a portrait of the short—but incredibly fertile—relationship between the artist and the Tony Award nominated playwright and actor Miguel Piñero. One of only five works into which Wong incorporated an entire poem of Piñero, this is the largest of the group. The present work also features the artist’s painstakingly detailed renderings of the urban landscape, along with many of his most enduring motifs. When combined with Piñero’s words, Wong’s inimitable iconography captures the creative energy that infused this unique place—and its inhabitants—to create one of the most exciting and vital periods of recent art history.

Set against a dramatic fiery sky, Wong depicts the patchwork of tenement buildings that make up New York’s Lower East Side neighborhood. Individually painted in exacting detail, the buildings’ façades are punctuated by a series of windows; some are dark, devoid of any sign of human life, yet some are—tantalizingly—illuminated, emitting the warm gold glow of the community that inhabits these otherwise anonymous buildings. The figure of Miguel Piñero is positioned along the lower edge, almost lost amongst the tall buildings; dressed in his black shirt and sporting a bright red tie, he is nonetheless an important presence in this important canvas. Superimposed over the buildings, painted in gold, are a number of symbolic objects, some of which appear throughout Wong’s oeuvre. An eight ball, a beer can, a razor blade, and a gun are shown, all objects that would have been part of the artist’s day-to-day visual lexicon in the gritty urban environment in which he lived. Floating above the scene is a large brick heart, big enough and strong enough to fend off the bullet released from the golden handgun.
(J. Yau, ‘All the World’s a Stage: The Art of Martin Wong,’ in A. S. Bessa (ed.), Martin Wong: Human Instamatic, exh. cat. Bronx Museum, New York, 2015, p.47).

Embracing this scene, both physically and metaphorically, is a verse by Miguel Piñero. Titled A Lower East Side Poem, it’s the poet’s homage to his beloved Lower East Side, in particular the neighborhood predominantly inhabited by Puerto Ricans. In it Piñero portrays the contradictions of life in this part of town: “A thief, a junkie I've been…committed every known sin…Jews and Gentiles…Bums & Men of style…run away child, police shooting wild…mother's futile wails…pushers making sales…dope wheelers & cocaine dealers…smoking pot…streets are hot & feed off those who bleed to death,” he writes, while at the same time extoling the inexorable sense of community and camaraderie that these circumstances create. So here I am, look at me, I stand proud as you can see, pleased to be from the Lower East [Side]…” (M. Piñero, A Lower Eastside Poem, online via https://allpoetry.com/A-Lower-Eastside-Poem [accessed: February 26, 2024]). Wong paints this last line directly along the lower edge of the painting, thus becoming—as it were—the foundation of the entire narrative of the painting.

"One of the strongest bodies of work within Wong’s diverse oeuvre consists of his collaborations with Miguel Piñero." John Yau

In 1982, Wong moved to 141 Ridge Street in lower Manhattan, and soon after befriended Piñero, who would introduce him to the neighborhood that was known as “Loisaida,” a derivation of the “Spanglish” term for Lower East Side. It is entirely plausible that Portrait of Mikey Piñero at Ridge Street and Stanton incorporated the view from the roof of Wong’s Ridge Street apartment building, something which he was known to do in recognition of his love for the community. “Martin reveled in the heart of this cacophony, living and working on the sixth floor of a walk-up at the intersection of Ridge and Stanton Streets,” recalls Barry Blinderman, a friend and art historian who also helped to organize one of the artist’s first exhibitions. “Since there was no doorbell, and he was either too immersed in his painting or too far up to hear a visitor’s cry from the street, you had to wait in line to call him from the pay phone on the corner, provided it hadn’t been sabotaged” (B. Blinderman, ‘Martin Wong’s Chains of Desire,’ Evergreen, online [accessed: 4/12/2024]).

“He was an artist of the local,” writes poet and critic John Yau. “He documented the Hispanic neighborhood, as well as recorded different aspects of his identity as an openly gay, Chinese American with desires, memories, all of which were at odds with mainstream America” (J. Yau, ‘All the World’s a Stage: The Art of Martin Wong,’ in A. S. Bessa (ed.), Martin Wong: Human Instamatic, exh. cat. Bronx Museum, New York, 2015, p.41). The first painting of this neighborhood appreciation that Wong completed was called Attorney Street (Handball Court with Autobiographical Poem by Piñero) (1982-84) and is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

As can be seen in the present work, Wong’s sources were many and varied, ranging from high art, popular culture, Asian entertainers, family photographs, his travels throughout Asia, personal histories (his and other people's), and close observation. In Portrait of Mikey Piñero at Ridge Street and Stanton, this observation reveals itself both in the physical structures of the neighborhood, and also the symbolic objects that represent the realities of everyday life there. Thus, in the present work, he overlays the architecture of the Lower East Side with renderings of an eight ball (a reference to both good and bad luck—the ying and yang—and the consumption of illegal substances), a snub-nosed Undercover revolver (a concealed carry favorite), a beer can, a screwdriver, a razor blade, and a particular favorite motif of Wong—a brick heart.

The brick motif is central to Wong’s work, and one which he incorporates into many of his most important paintings. When paired with the gun, as in the case of the present work, it has also been read as a reference to the resilience of the local neighborhood against the police violence that was endemic at the time. Yet, Wong’s individually painted bricks are not only a reaction to his love of place, they are also a more open and repeated response—much like Jasper Johns or Robert Ryman—to seeing, and reading, and merging the physical and the visual. Wong’s extensive use of gold can be traced back to his maternal grandfather who worked as a goldsmith. In addition, ever since his childhood Wong and his mother had collected examples of cloisonne, a type of ceramic that uses metallic elements mixed with color to produce a dazzling effect. He also spent time studying illuminated manuscripts and their use of gilding.

Martin Wong’s painterly talent and unique voice have resulted in a body of work that revels in and celebrates his lived experience. The artist was able to offer up the distinctive voice of a queer Chinese-American, a voice that spoke to both the psychical and emotional structures of New York City. Portrait of Mikey Piñero at Ridge Street and Stanton presents one of the artist’s most complete renderings of his important tropes, and thus stands as one of his most accomplished paintings. In addition it celebrates one of the most intense and productive relationships of Wong’s life and thus lies at the center of Wong’s very personal narrative, acting as a voice that still has important things to say in the art historical narrative of the twentieth century.

So here I am, look at me
I stand proud as you can see
pleased to be from the Lower East [Side]…
Miguel Piñero, A Lower East Side Poem, 1978