Art and Authenticity in the Age of Fake News
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Eglon Daley, Chinese New Year, Chinatown, 1993 |
Acrylic on board, 29 5/8 × 45 3/8 in. (75.2 × 115.3 cm) |
Gift of Nelson and Susanne Joyner |
2019.4.1
Chinese New Year, Chinatown depicts an assortment of people gathering to observe the annual festivities around Gallery Place in Washington, DC. Although the work celebrates the diverse group of people gathered in Chinatown to celebrate the stated occasion, the painting—likely unintentionally—also witnesses the neighborhood’s gentrification. At the end of the twentieth century, the Chinese population in Chinatown had significantly decreased. Rather than picture the dragon dances that would be taking place in the street to celebrate the Lunar New Year or the local storefronts that bear Mandarin signage, Daley pictures the spectators who descend on the neighborhood once a year. With its snapshot-like quality, Daley’s work captures the warmth and excitement of the crowd. However, like photorealist paintings from the 1960s and 70s, it brackets the broader political contexts in which such fleeting moments take place.
Portfolio
(Click on the image below to launch a full-size slideshow)
Carol M. Highsmith (1946-), Chinese New Year parade and celebration in Chinatown, Washington D.C., 1980. Transparency. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Carol M. Highsmith.
Chien-Chi Chang, Chinese New Year celebration in Chinatown, 1993. © Chien-Chi Chang / Magnum Photos.
Image of article "D.C.’s Chinatown has only 300 Chinese Americans left, and they’re fighting to stay" by Yanan Wang, 2015. © Brittany Greeson/The Washington Post.
Carol M. Highsmith (1946-), Chinese New Year parade and celebration in Chinatown, Washington D.C., 1980. Transparency. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Carol M. Highsmith.