Analysis Of Martin Wong's Closed

Martin Wong was born in 1946 in Portland, and grew up in San Francisco. He was a well known Chinese-American painter in the late twentieth century. Wong was a contemporary artist and his artwork is described to be a combination of visionary art styles and social realism. In this paper I will explain Martin Wong’s background and my interpretation of his art piece “Closed” by looking at his choice of elements in the composition and what they evoke.
Thus, Wong studied architect and ceramics in college. After college he started working as a portrait sketcher in the streets and called himself the human instamatic. Later on, he started performing in a gay theatre troupe. Also, he collected asian antiques through his travels in Asia. After some time, he decided to become a painter.
The composition “Closed” was made with acrylic on canvas in 1984 with the dimensions 84 1/8 × 108 3/16 in. (213.7 × 274.8 cm). Closed is a wide, rectangular painting, dominated by a big brown gate, covered in chains and lockers in different forms and shapes. The bars are a blend of bronze and brown. Silver, gold and brown lockers are hanging on
Especially, by letting his audience decide whether being trapped in our own head or letting ourselves free. Similarly, the artist decided to use dark colors, lockers and chains to express one’s ability to break free. In other words, individuals may be their own worst enemy by self-imposed limitations. Wong’s art piece is an example of Jörg Reckhenrich, Martin Kupp and Jamie Anderson techniq “think outside the canvas”. In other words, the painting consists of one object which seems to be a gate with chains and lockers blended in dark colors. Therefore, this “plain” painting enable the observer to be creative in their own imagination. For example, a complex, asymmetric painting with many objects may prevent our imagination while