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Bird Cry
Bird Cry
© Estate of Fred Fang Yu Wang. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.

Bird Cry

Artist (Born in Beijing, China, 1913–1997)
Daten.d.
MediumInk on rice paper, on silk mount
Dimensions85 1/2 x 29 3/8 inches (217.2 x 74.6 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of Shao F. (E’78, P’14) and Cheryl L. Wang (P’14)
Object number2011.19.2
Collections
  • ASIAN
  • MODERN & CONTEMPORARY
Label TextThis calligraphic painting by Chinese-born scholar/artist Fang Yu (Fred) Wang, illustrates the Chinese characters for bird cry. In Bird Cry, Wang has stretched the character that signifies "bird" to make it resemble an animal form, showing his interest in the relationship between image and meaning. Wang sought to incorporate elements of Western contemporary art into traditional Chinese expression. The bold, lively characters bring to a Westerner's mind the gestural paintings of the Abstract Expressionists.

Wang's calligraphic paintings have been exhibited and published in the United States and abroad. In 1999, the China Institute of New York organized a retrospective, A Literati Life in the Twentieth Century: Wang Fangyu - Artist, Scholar, Connoisseur.