Tang Chang Calligraphic Blue
Thursday, July 2, 2020
![Tang Chang Calligraphic Blue](https://rachelecohen.com/images/blog/IMG_5131.jpg)
Tang Chang, Untitled, 1975. Courtesy of Thip Sae-Tang. Detail photos Rachel Cohen.
Something about the blue in the Mary Cassatt I was looking at yesterday and the calligraphy in the Persian miniature I looked at before that made me think of an extraordinary calligraphic blue that I witnessed in a show at the Smart Museum of Art a couple of years ago.
![](https://rachelecohen.com/images/blog/IMG_5134.jpg)
The show was called Tang Chang: The Painting that is Painted with Poetry is Profoundly Beautiful. Tang Chang (1934-1990) also known as Chang Sae-Tang painted and wrote poetry in Thailand.
![](https://rachelecohen.com/images/blog/IMG_5135.jpg)
In the 1950s, he moved into gestural abstraction, not because of the international art scene, but out of the demands of what he was at work on.
![](https://rachelecohen.com/images/blog/IMG_5133.jpg)
He painted in a way that meditated on writing, and he wrote poetry, and he made poetry-drawings. There are nice exhibition materials and a small booklet-catalogue on the Smart Museum website linked below.
![](https://rachelecohen.com/images/blog/IMG_5130.jpg)
I mostly photographed one painting. Untitled, from 1975. It's a large painting. 81 7/8 by 96 7/16 inches, so nearly seven feet tall and 8 feet wide.
![](https://rachelecohen.com/images/blog/IMG_5138.jpg)
I spent quite a bit of time sitting with it, and I remember at one point walking a group of students through looking at it. There was a sequence of impressions, places that seemed to call for attention.
![](https://rachelecohen.com/images/blog/blog-1203-fowoh33489.jpg)
I found it uplifting, invigorating. I felt like I was really learning by looking at it.
![](https://rachelecohen.com/images/blog/IMG_5137.jpg)
for Issa Lampe