The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 31, 2026

A vertically oriented drawing on a long, narrow strip of translucent vellum features dense, horizontal rows of repetitive marks. Hundreds of tiny rectangular and arched figures, rendered in gray graphite, stack from top to bottom. Blank margins at the top and bottom frame this meticulous accumulation of detail across the monochromatic field. The work emphasizes the fine, repetitive marks across the entire vertical surface.

Rainbow Brain

1983–84

Martin Wong

(American, 1946–1999)
America
graphite on vellum tracing paper
Sheet (irregular): 264.1 x 30.7 cm (104 x 12 1/16 in.)
Partial purchase from the John L. Severance Fund and partial gift of Stephen Dull 2024.67
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Born to a Chinese mother and a Chinese Mexican father, Wong described himself as Chino-Latino.

Description

Martin Wong was an active participant in the downtown art scene in New York City during the 1970s and ’80s. Around 1980, he began to create artworks such as this one that incorporated the fingerspelling alphabet used in American Sign Language. Wong based the visual style of these works on cards used to solicit donations on the New York subway by deaf people at the time. This scroll is one of several that he created using this imagery and features a poem of Wong’s own creation telling the story of a woman named Kacey whose brain turns all the colors of the rainbow from her work dying beauty queens’ hair.
  • 1983–1999
    Studio of the artist [1946–1999], New York
    1999–2024
    Estate of the artist
    2024
    (P.P.O.W. Gallery, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2024–
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Rainbow Brain|url=false|author=Martin Wong|year=1983–84|access-date=31 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2024.67