©1985, Zhang Hongtu
On view
South Asian Art
Fish,
1985
Zhang Hongtu 張宏圖, born 1943, Pingliang, China; active New York, NY
2008-365
In 1982, I lived in lower Manhattan and often walked across Times Square to the Art Students League on 58th Street. I was shocked by the flood of people coming toward me on the narrow sidewalks and soon realized that I was one of the crowd, no different from others. . . . Then, I started Fish. After days of repeated daubing on the canvas, Times Square disappeared, leaving a group of fish jumping into new waters. I tried to locate their expressions, but it was difficult; fright? strangeness? happiness? All right and all wrong. I’ll end with Zhuangzi, the fourth-century BCE Daoist philosopher: Zhuangzi pointed at a river, saying, "How happy are the fish in the river!" Huizi replied, "You are not a fish; how do you know that the fish are happy?" Zhuangzi said, "You are not me; how do you know that I don’t know that fish are happy?"
Zhang Hongtu
Zhang Hongtu
Information
Title
Fish
Dates
1985
Maker
Medium
Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions
165.4 x 183.2 x 4.8 cm. (65 1/8 x 72 1/8 x 1 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the P. Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Center for East Asian Art, and Museum purchase, Asian Art Department Fund
Object Number
2008-365
Place Made
North America, United States
Signatures
signed (on back)
Culture
Type
Subject
1985–2008 Zhang Hongtu (Brooklyn, NY), sold to the Princeton University Art Museum, 2008.
