The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 30, 2026

A horizontally oriented ink drawing on cream-colored paper features an undulating band of gestural forms in charcoal and gray. Tangled black lines create dense clusters across the width, interspersed with light, hazy washes. Two small red square stamps, one in the top left and another in the bottom right corner, anchor the fluid, frenetic composition, which evokes a vast, abstract landscape shifting through space.

Brushwork Study for Reorienting Pollock

2008

Arnold Chang

(American, b. 1954)
America
Ink on paper
50.2 x 189.1 cm (19 3/4 x 74 7/16 in.)
Gift of Marc and Elizabeth Wilson in memory of Wai-kam Ho 2025.181
© Arnold Chang
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The image has no set orientation and works equally well when turned upside down.

Description

Arnold Chang’s intuitive ink play, scribbled freely over a flat surface, is built in layers from light to dark ink-dots and strokes that create rhythm, direction, and depth as they connect, condense, and trace the brush’s movements.

An artistic response to Jackson Pollock’s horizontal drip painting Number 10 in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this exploratory sketch is a predecessor to Secluded Valley in the Cold Mountains, CMA 2024.69. Chang created both the sketch and handscroll for the 2010 exhibition Fresh Ink: Ten Takes on Chinese Tradition at MFA Boston.
  • 2008–2013
    Collection of the Artist, sold to Marc and Elizabeth Wilson
    2013–2025
    Marc and Elizabeth Wilson, Kansas City, MO, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2025–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Scheier-Dolberg, Joseph. “Arnold Chang.” Orientations Magazine, v. 41, no. 7 (October 2010), 51. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 51
    Sheng, Hao, Joseph Scheier-Dolberg, and Yan Yang. Fresh Ink: Ten Takes on Chinese Tradition. Boston, MA: MFA Publications; New York, NY: Distributed Art Publishers, 2010. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 54, p. 59
    Coller, Bobbi and Helen A. Harrison. The Persistence of Pollock. East Hampton, NY: Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, 2012. Mentioned: p. 13; Reproduced: p. 12
  • Landscapes by Arnold Chang: A Retrospective and Recent Acquisitions 張洪山水畫回顧展. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 8-November 9, 2025).
    The Persistence of Pollock. Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, East Hampton, NY (May 3-July 28, 2012).
    Fresh Ink: Ten Takes on Chinese Tradition. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (November 20, 2010-February 13, 2011).
  • {{cite web|title=Brushwork Study for Reorienting Pollock|url=false|author=Arnold Chang|year=2008|access-date=30 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2025.181