Four Photographs by Tseng Kwong Chi Acquired by Museum of Modern Art
Four self-portraits from the East Meets West series (1979–1989) by Tseng Kwong Chi are currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. The works, recently acquired by the museum, are part of the exhibition In the Shadow of the American Dream, located in Gallery 202 on the second floor. The installation is scheduled to remain viewable through 2026.
The exhibition places Tseng’s photography alongside works by Agosto Machado, David Wojnarowicz, Martin Wong, and Peter Hujar. The selection focuses on art produced in New York during the 1980s, a period defined by urban decay, financial instability, and the AIDS epidemic. Wojnarowicz, whose writing provided the exhibition’s title, and Wong, who documented the shuttered storefronts of the Lower East Side, are positioned as contemporaries responding to the same social landscape. The curation was handled by Stuart Comer, Sophie Cavoulacos, and Abby Hermosilla.
Tseng Kwong Chi was born in Hong Kong in 1950 and relocated to Canada at age 16 before studying at the Académie Julian in Paris. After moving to New York in 1978, he began the East Meets West series, also known as the Expeditionary Self-Portraits, in which he photographed himself at various American landmarks wearing a Mao suit and mirrored sunglasses. Tseng was a frequent collaborator of Keith Haring, acting as the primary photographer documenting Haring‘s work in the New York City subway system. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Tate, and the Walker Art Center. He was the brother of the dancer and choreographer Muna Tseng, who currently manages his estate. Tseng died of AIDS-related complications in 1990 at the age of 39.
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