Location

not on view

Fun Fact

This artwork is made from three canvases that the artist joined together.

Description

The son of Chinese immigrants and a resident of New York’s Lower East Side in the 1980s, Wong was interested in and sensitive to the life and struggles of American citizens who were often disenfranchised by local and national government. Based on a now-destroyed storefront on East Fifth Street, Chinese Hand Laundry serves as a reminder of the complex and ongoing issues of immigration in American politics and society.

Inscriptions

Inscription

"Chinese Hand Laundry 347 East Fifth Street Manhatten Martin Wong 1984" inscribed on verso

Provenance

1984–2014

Rosenman collection

2014

Rosenman collection, sold to P.P.O.W. Gallery, NY, NY

2014–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Metropolitan Museum of Art. Notable acquisitions. Vol. 7. (1984-1985) New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985

Wong, Martin, Marcia Tucker, and Amy Scholder. Sweet Oblivion: The Urban Landscape of Martin Wong. New York: Rizzoli, 1998.

Whitney Museum of American Art, and Maxwell Lincoln Anderson. American Visionaries: Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2001.

Kim, Elaine H., Margo Machida, and Sharon Mizota. Fresh Talk, Daring Gazes: Conversations on Asian American Art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

Fellah, Nadiah Rivera. “Urban Isolation.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 1 (Winter 2021): 9. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 9.

Exhibition history

Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).