The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of October 6, 2026

A horizontal ink and color painting on paper features a mirrored landscape divided by vibrant stripes. In the upper half, fine black lines like skeletal branches reach from the left, a red circle suspended beneath them. Amorphous charcoal gray ink blots bloom across the center. Below bands of blue and red, the imagery reflects against a golden yellow wash, the red circle replaced by green. A small red seal rests in the upper right.

Reflection

2002

Irene Chou

(Chinese, 1924–2011)
China
ink, color, and acrylic on paper
Overall: 60 x 96 cm (23 5/8 x 37 13/16 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Whitehill Art Purchase Endowment Fund 2013.32
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Irene Chou was in the forefront of the Hong Kong art scene from the late 1960s onward, steering the Chinese ink painting tradition toward abstraction and an engagement with both traditional Chinese philosophy and Western modernism.

Description

Hong Kong artist Irene Chou engaged with traditional Chinese philosophy, the abstract and expressionist elements of Chinese ink painting, and Western modernism to seek an individual expression in art.

By freely splattering ink and duplicating the ink blobs to form chance images, Chou makes an allusion to a natural world of reflected light and images. Reflection is symbolic of the artist’s search for knowledge of dao and a state of “pure heart” through inner reflection. It is her imagination of Daoist freedom and mystery that connects her subjective world with the powerful life forces of the universe.
  • 2002–after 2011
    The artist's collection, Brisbane, Australia, by descent to the artist's family
    ?–2013
    (Lok Ku Gallery Ltd., Hong Kong, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2013–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Archives of Asian Art 64, no. 2 (2014): 225. p. 225
    Chung, Anita. “Body, Mind, and Cosmos: The ink paintings of Irene Chou.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 55, no. 3 (May/June 2015): 14–15. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 14 archive.org
  • Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 242). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 7-July 7, 2015).
    Irene Chou's solo exhibition. Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong (2003).
  • {{cite web|title=Reflection|url=false|author=Irene Chou|year=2002|access-date=06 October 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2013.32