Five Fish Diptych, Martin Fan Cheng

Artwork Overview

Martin Fan Cheng, Five Fish Diptych
Martin Fan Cheng, Five Fish Diptych
Martin Fan Cheng
Five Fish Diptych
1995–2000
Martin Fan Cheng, artist
1931–2023
Five Fish Diptych, 1995–2000
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: pencil
Dimensions:
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): top (a): 50 x 74.7 cm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 19 11/16 x 29 7/16 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): bottom (b): 40.4 x 71 cm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 15 7/8 x 27 15/16 in
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 30 1/4 x 36 1/4 x 1 in
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 30 1/4 x 36 1/4 x 1 in
Weight (Weight): top (a): 14 lbs
Weight (Weight): bottom (b): 14 lbs
Credit line: Museum purchase: Museum of Art Acquisition Fund and gift of Marilyn Stokstad in memory of Bob Billings
Accession number: 2004.0030.a,b
Not on display
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Exhibition Label: "Windmills to Workshops: Lawrence and the Visual Arts," Jul-2004, Kate Meyer On the surface, many works by Cheng involve fastidious and loving studies of the fish that he catches, cooks, eats, and draws or paints-but the subject of his works is also deeply rooted in his life experience. Cheng, a longtime Lawrence resident, worked on Five Fish over a five-year period. He explains that his use of two perspective views in the two panels of Five Fish concerns a recurrent dream which he has had since age 10, when his city, Chengdu (also Chengtu), was bombed from the air. In this dream Cheng is standing on an airfield watching a single distant plane in the sky making its way to the airfield. He looks away briefly, but when his glance returns to the plane it is right above him. As for the newspaper, Cheng explains that he believes in “newspaper culture”-he uses the ephemeral product not just as reading material, but also prefers newspaper to plastic for wrapping foods.