KEN COCKBURN traces the one original language – that of the Yamnaya pastoral nomads – from which all European and Indian languages derive
Latest editorial
Cantonese Cowboy
JAN WOOLF is sucked into a unique vision of the urban US from the perspective of immigrant and queer communities
Cell Door Slot, 1986, Acrylic on canvas; Prison Bunk Beds, ca. 1988—91
Acrylic on canvas
[Courtesy of the Martin Wong Foundation]
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the debunking of the iconic British war hero
ALEX HALL recommends a searing panorama of our global predicament
Comics are not just superheroes and spandex – it can be public art, telling public stories, suggests HARRIET EARLE
ALEXEI SAYLE speaks to Angus Reid about a lifetime of protest, how to hone political art – and what to do now
The bard serenades the Diggers of Wigan and their festive followers
Martin Wong, Malicious Mischief
Camden Arts Centre
MARTIN WONG (1946–1999) is a free spirit, and Malicious Mischief is peculiar in the good sense; peculiar to something, rather than weird. What he is peculiar to is the queer and immigrant scenes of west and east coast America, with a sort of controlled playfulness. And boy could he paint.
Some of the figures can seem like Robert Crumb cartoons, and then you see a foreshortened body like one of Michelangelo’s. There’s homage to Peter Blake’s detritus in shop windows. Some clean line painting, and then a scumble of oil paint as delicious as Rembrandt or Bacon.
But Wong is his own man and paints human life struggling against decay in a money-obsessed America. His textured walls, brickwork and gates are full of the fading hope of people who might have seen America as a second chance, rather than an opportunity for money making.
Similar stories
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes an enlightening and witty biography of one of the 20th century’s most restless and influential artists
MATTHEW HAWKINS rakes through un-fancy words and flair-free summaries to find who and what might be flamboyant
JAN WOOLF ponders the works and contested reputation of the West German sculptor and provocateur, who believed that everybody is potentially an artist
JAN WOOLF is beguiled by the tempting notion that Freud psychoanalysed Hitler in a comedy that explores the vulnerability of a damaged individual