A Gesture Of Thanks—

Wang Ming Donates Art Works To

Fairfield University’s Walsh Gallery

FAIRFIELD — Artist Wang Ming and his wife, the photographer Cynthia Brumback, have donated several pieces of Ming’s work, valued at $118,000, to Fairfield University’s Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.

Mr Ming, a calligrapher whose work contains western abstractions, exhibited his work at Walsh Gallery last fall in a show titled “Universal Dimensions/Scrolls and Screens.” Now 80, he said he “was so physically and spiritually energized” by his successful exhibit at the gallery that he and his wife decided to express their thanks by donating several of his works to the gallery.

Diana Mille, PhD, the director of Walsh Gallery, said, “Ming’s generous donation includes significant works consisting of two 35-foot long scrolls of acrylic on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on linen, together with 12 other works on paper. His art combines a special mix of western intellectual ideas with the power and subtlety of the eastern spirit,” she explained.

Born and raised in a small village near Beijing, China, Wang Ming emigrated to the United States in 1951 at age 29, settling in the Washington, D.C. area. In China, he studied calligraphy and the classical painting of his native land. Upon arrival in this country, he learned about Western art by visiting museums and galleries and reading in the Library of Congress. Mr Ming has emerged as an artist whose style is his own — an assimilation of two cultures in a unique blend of East and West.

Tom Zingarelli, the executive director of the Quick Center, said, “Wang Ming is an excellent artist of the highest caliber. We are delighted with his generous donation and proud to have his works.”

Mr Zingarelli is in the process of raising funds to have the large scrolls framed, after which they will be on permanent display in the Quick Center’s lobby. The other works will join the university’s permanent art collection which, according to Mr Zingarelli, “has enjoyed significant growth since the opening of the Walsh Gallery.”

During the 2000-01 academic year the university received art donations valued at $260,000, Mr Zingarelli said. In addition to Mr Ming’s works, they include several pieces of African and Indian sculpture; last year, gifts of paintings by Jan Aronson and Charles Hinman were received.

The permanent collection, which now numbers approximately 53 pieces, is in search of a place to be displayed. Mr Zingarelli is exploring various options to this end.