New Article by Mike May
Kiss Kiss, Pang Pang
by Mike May
“East is East and West is West and…
a) …never the twain shall meet.”
b) …the wrong one I have chose.”
c) …now you can start your morning with Egg McMuffin
wherever you happen to be.”
d) …the twain do meet in Pang’s celebrated
watercolors.”
Choose “d” and you have a description of Tseng-Ying Pang as given by Bondstreet Gallery’s John Gillespie. (FYI: “a” is from Rudyard Kipling; “b” is the old song “Buttons and Bows,” a Doris Day staple; and “c.” well, if you have to ask, you should be writing memoirs about what it’s like to leave a larnasery after three decades.
Bondstreet, at 5640 Walnut Street, Shadyside, has a retrospective exhibit of watercolors and serigraphs by Pang, commemorating his 22 years of residence in the United States.
It’s a beautiful show, and Gillespie has played up the mood of the mysterious East in the gallery with such Orientalia as cloisonne figurines, highly carved blackwood furniture, and Occidental ideas of Oriental music as background sound—”The 101 Strings Live at Peking’s Forbidden City.” or something like that. (And John Gillespie says one “art expert” described Pang’s work with musical imagery. He sees it as “an Occidental symphony with Oriental indirection.”)
It’s certainly lyrical, all right. And romantic, but with control and understatement.
After receiving the Republic of China’s (Taiwan’s) coveted President’s Award in 1965, Tseng-Ying Pang came to America on a grant from the Asia Foundation. Since his arrival, he has received more than 200 awards here for his watercolors. Pang was graduated from Chunghua College of Art in Peking, and later received a scholarship to study art at Nippon University, in Japan, his birthplace. His mother was a Chinese artist residing there.
Although his artistic roots are Chinese, the influence of the Occident is apparent in his work. One need only note such obviously titled watercolors as “Homage to Miro (I and II).”
Gordon Brown, former senior editor of Arts magazine, described Pang’s art as “his own version of abstract expressionism.” However, Pang never really strays over the borders into true abstract expressionism. except in pieces like the Miro homages. And these are not his best work. Actually, they look like Rorschach blots.
No, it’s the romantic Orientalisms gently ruffled with a touch of the West wind that makes his art captivating. His enchanting mountains, whispers, mists, flowers, leaves and autumn breezes—described with an elegant sensuality of color never stray far from reality. Or perhaps, what reality should ideally be.
His look at goldfish in several serigraphs and paintings- “Goldfish Ballet,” “Golden Pond”-gives a glimpse at the creatures as though studied through the glass surface of still, ever-clear water. They seem to float effortlessly, timelessly.
In the end, it’s the timeless quality of Pang’s art that’s impressive. His vision has that kind of universal appeal-big enough to encompass yesterday, today and tomorrow.
There’s promise that someone, somewhere will always understand that vision. And long after Egg McMuffin is a dusty footnote on the relentless march of time.