Contributed by David Carrier / Bernice Bing (1936–1998), a gay Chinese American woman, grew up in San Francisco. She had a difficult childhood. Her mother died when she was five and lived in no fewer than 17 predominantly white orphanages. She attended local schools, got her MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute, and actively participated in the local art scene. Her teachers included Richard Diebenkorn as well as celebrated local artists, and Bing exhibited widely in Northern California. Now, thanks to Berry Campbell Gallery, which has provided a magnificent catalogue with a fine essay by John Yau, her work is being brought to New York’s attention.
During much of the roughly 35-year period these works span, serious questions about the ongoing viability of painting arose in the New York art world. In San Francisco, according to Yau’s account, the central concerns were different and less dire. Judging from this highly eclectic show, Bing’s goal was to define her personal style in relation to late modernism. Velazquez Family No. II (1961) is Bing’s painterly, quasi-abstract version of the eponymous master’s Las Meninas. Mayacamas No. 6 (1963) is akin to Diebenkorn’s abstract landscapes. Blue Mountain, No. 2 (1966) explores the themes of Clyfford Still. Untitled (c.1986) employs a Newman-esque “zip.” Her landscapes resemble Marsden Hartley’s.
For me, the most challenging and impressive work in the show is the small watercolor and pencil on paper, Map Forms #2 (1996). This fully resolved image shows extraordinary mastery of color, situating a yellow pine against red, black and dark green. At this point, sadly near the end of her life, Bing was moving in dramatically original directions. In 1984, she made an extended trip to China, Japan, and South Korea, where she studied calligraphy, which appeared to inspire some of her paintings. However, traditional Chinese art may have been too distant from the Western painterly tradition in which she was trained for this synthesis to completely succeed. The bold red and black ink drawing Healing (1993–94) is admirable but looks firmly Western. Yet it’s difficult to critically evaluate a previously unknown artist on the basis of a small sampling of her work, especially one so varied. Perhaps this exhibition will lead to a larger one, which an artist of Bing’s singularly impressive ambition and skill certainly merits.
“Bernice Bing: Bingo,” Berry Campbell Gallery, 524 West 26th Street, New York, NY. Through October 12, 2024.
About the author: David Carrier is a former professor at Carnegie Mellon University; Getty Scholar; and Clark Fellow. He has published art criticism for Apollo, artcritical, Artforum, Artus, and Burlington Magazine, and has been a guest editor for The Brooklyn Rail. He is a regular contributor to Two Coats of Paint.
