Queenie

1971–72

Queenie, 1971–72. Ching Ho Cheng (American, 1946–1989). Watercolor and ink; sheet: 76.1 x 228.6 cm (29 15/16 x 90 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Ching Ho Cheng Estate 2011.14 © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Born to a Chinese diplomat family in Cuba, Ching Ho Cheng spent much of his career in New York City, where he was deeply involved in the city’s artistic scene from the 1960s through the ‘80s. The style of his artworks varied widely through the decades, but he consistently preferred to work on paper, resulting in drawings such as this one. Queenie repeats the features of eccentric artist Vali Myers, who was Cheng’s lover for a time, in a hallucinogenic mix of colors and patterns. Myers’s flowing red hair and bare feet line the spiraling vortex at center where she gradually transforms into a seated fox surrounded by swimming spermlike creatures. Vali Myers, who transforms into a fox in this drawing, frequently depicted foxes in her own work and even kept a pet vixen named Foxy.