Attorney Street commemorates the multiethnic Lower East Side neighborhood where Wong lived. Here he depicts a handball court that had recently been tagged with graffiti. At the top is a poem by Puerto Rican author Miguel Piñero, who boasts about his adventures in crime, addiction, poverty, and violence. The poem’s sudden bursts of speech form a staccato rhythm that culminates with the outrageous declaration, "Slapped Jesus in the face and ran Satan out of town." Wong used the manual alphabet to finger spell the title and his name on the top part of the frame. Each line of the phrase in the cartouche on the lower frame is transliterated, using the manual alphabet, in the foreground. Ultimately, the painting conveys the noise, hyperactive energy, and multilingual jumble of New York.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
Inscription: Signed and inscribed (upper right): Rendered in paint / by Martin Wong
the artist, New York (1984; sold through Bess Cutler Gallery, New York to MMA)
New York. Bess Cutler Gallery. "Situations," January–February 11, 1984, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Aspects of the City," July 31–September 30, 1984, no catalogue.
Mexico City. Museo Rufino Tamayo. "Nueva Pintura Narrativa: Coleccion del Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nueva York," November–December 1984, no. 30.
Bronx Museum of the Arts. "The Artist Celebrates New York: Selected Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 2–March 24, 1985, unnum. brochure.
Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus. "The Artist Celebrates New York: Selected Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 17–June 2, 1985, unnum. brochure.
Queens. Jamaica Arts Center. "The Artist Celebrates New York: Selected Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 15–July 27, 1985, unnum. brochure.
Staten Island Museum. "The Artist Celebrates New York: Selected Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 8–October 20, 1985, unnum. brochure.
New York. City College of New York. "The Artist Celebrates New York: Selected Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 25–December 13, 1985, unnum. brochure.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The 1980s: A New Generation, American Painters and Sculptors," April 13–July 31, 1988, brochure no. 48 (as "Attorney Street: Handball Court with Autobiographical Poem by Piñero").
New York. New Museum of Contemporary Art. "Sweet Oblivion: The Urban Landscape of Martin Wong," May 28–September 13, 1998, no. 2.
New York. New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York. "East Village USA," December 9, 2004–March 19, 2005, no. 173.
New York. Bronx Museum of the Arts. "Martin Wong: Human Instamatic," November 4, 2015–March 13, 2016, unnumbered cat. (p. 52).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. "Delirious: Art at the Limits of Reason, 1950–1980," September 13, 2017–January 14, 2018, no. 74.
Yasmin R. Harwood. "Writing in the Sky: Martin Wong." East Village Eye 5 (October 1984), p. 25, ill.
Lowery S. Sims inNueva Pintura Narrativa: Coleccion del Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nueva York. Exh. cat., Museo Rufino Tamayo. Mexico City, 1984, pp. 21, 45, no. 30, ill.
Mark Riebling. "'Aspects of the City' Mixes Variety of Artists and Styles." Columbia Daily Spectator (September 7, 1984), p. 5.
Walter Robinson and Carlo McCormick. "Slouching Toward Avenue D." Art in America 72 (Summer 1984), ill. p. 160, call it "Attorney St. Handball Court With Autobiographical Poem by Miguel Piñero" and date it 1984.
Holland Cotter. "Martin Wong." Arts Magazine 59 (September 1984), p. 2, calls it "Attorney Street Handball Court".
Lisa M. Messinger in "Twentieth Century Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1984–1985. New York, 1985, p. 58, ill.
Lowery S. Sims. The Artist Celebrates New York: Selected Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. brochure, Bronx Museum of the Arts. New York, 1985, unpaginated.
Piri Halasz. "Manhattan Museums: The 1940s vs. the 1980s; Part Two: The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Arts Magazine 59 (March 1985), pp. 97–98, calls it "Attorney Street: Handball Court with Autobiographical Poem".
Dan Cameron. "Image and Authority: The Recent Paintings of Martin Wong." Arts Magazine 60 (January 1986), p. 16, calls it "Attorney Street Handball Court".
Peter Frank and Michael McKenzie. New, Used & Improved: Art for the 80's. New York, 1987, ill. p. 59 (color), call it "Attorney Street Handball Court with Autobiographical Poem by Pinero".
Lucy R. Lippard. Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America. New York, 1990, pp. 137, 225, colorpl. 32.
Barry Blinderman inSweet Oblivion: The Urban Landscape of Martin Wong. Ed. Amy Scholder. Exh. cat., Illinois State University Galleries, Normal. New York, 1998, p. 22.
Yasmin Ramirez inSweet Oblivion: The Urban Landscape of Martin Wong. Ed. Amy Scholder. Exh. cat., Illinois State University Galleries, Normal. New York, 1998, pp. 38–41, 77, no. 2, colorpl. 28.
Lydia Yee inSweet Oblivion: The Urban Landscape of Martin Wong. Ed. Amy Scholder. Exh. cat., Illinois State University Galleries, Normal. New York, 1998, p. 53.
Donald Kuspit. "Martin Wong at the New Museum of Contemporary Art." Art New England 20 (December 1998/January 1999), p. 13.
Holland Cotter. "The Streets of a Crumbling El Dorado, Paved with Poetry and Desire." New York Times (June 5, 1998), p. E35.
Barry Schwabsky. "A City of Bricks and Ciphers." Art in America 86 (September 1998), p. 103, ill. p. 100 (color).
Martin Wong. "Martin Wong Meets Martin Wong." Giant Robot no. 15 (Summer 1999), p. 50, calls it "Attorney Street Handball Court".
Jeffrey Bruce. "Red Brick and Chain Link: The Urban Romance of Martin Wong." International Review of African American Art 16 (2000), p. 40, ill. p. 37 (color).
Sarah Valdez. "Report from New York II: Tales of Bohemian Glory." Art in America 93 (June/July 2005), p. 95, ill. p. 92 (color).
Richard G. Mann. "Wong, Martin (1946–1999)." glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. Online resource [glbtqarchive.com/arts/wong_m], 2007.
Roy Pérez. "Queer Mediums: The Cultural Politics of Figuration in Latin@ Literature and Performance." PhD diss., New York University, 2012, pp. 13, 17, 43–49, fig. 5.
Charlie Ahearn. "Martin's Grafitti Obsession." City as Canvas: New York City Graffiti from the Martin Wong Collection. Ed. Sean Corcoran and Carlo McCormick. New York, 2013, pp. 23–24, ill. (color).
Aaron "Sharp" Goodstone in "Recollections of Martin Wong." City as Canvas: New York City Graffiti from the Martin Wong Collection. Ed. Sean Corcoran and Carlo McCormick. New York, 2013, p. 233.
Peter R. Kalb. Art Since 1980: Charting the Contemporary. London, 2013, pp. 100–1, fig. 4.11 (color).
John Yau inMartin Wong: Human Instamatic. Ed. Antonio Sergio Bessa. Exh. cat., Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York. London, 2015, pp. 47–48, 153, ill. pp. 52, 153 (color).
Julie Ault inMartin Wong: Human Instamatic. Ed. Antonio Sergio Bessa. Exh. cat., Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York. London, 2015, pp. 85–86.
Yasmin Ramirez inMartin Wong: Human Instamatic. Ed. Antonio Sergio Bessa. Exh. cat., Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York. London, 2015, pp. 109, 113, 121, 130.
Holland Cotter. "An Urban Visionary with a Hungry Eye." New York Times (November 20, 2015), p. C28.
Andrew Russeth. "Big Heat: The Bronx Museum Champions the Brave, Unflinching Martin Wong." artnews.com. November 6, 2015, ill. (color).
Ysabelle Cheung. "The Fantastic Observations of Martin Wong." hyperallergic.com. November 23, 2015.
Martin Wong inMy Trip to America by Martin Wong. Ed. Caitlin Burkhart and Julian Myers-Szupinska. Exh. cat., CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. San Francisco, 2015, p. 99.
Eleanor Heartney. "Street Life." Art in America 104 (February 2016), pp. 79–80, ill. (color).
Ingrid Dudek. "Martin Wong: I Am You, You Are Too." ArtAsiaPacific no. 98 (May/June 2016), p. 77, ill. p. 76 (color).
Tiernan Morgan. "The Intimate Visions of Martin Wong, Loisaida's 'Chino-Latino' Painter." hyperallergic.com. January 15, 2016.
James Cassell. "Martin Wong on the Lower East Side." Gay & Lesbian Review/Worldwide. Online resource [glreview.org], May–June 2016.
Kelly Baum inDelirious: Art at the Limits of Reason, 1950–1980. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. New York, 2017, pp. 62, 214, colorpl. 74.
Antonio Sergio Bessa. "(Untitled) Nutz Boy—Martin Wong." Art in Print 8 (November–December 2018), p. 20.
Joshua Chambers-Letson. After the Party: A Manifesto for Queer of Color Life. New York, 2018, pp. 115–16.
Kunlin He. "Rethinking Chinese Painting in the Context of Sinophone Studies." Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 18 (November/December 2019), p. 99, ill. p. 100 (color).
Kita Douglas. "Graphic Intimations: Postwar to Contemporary Asian Diasporic Art and Writing." PhD diss., Duke University, 2019, pp. 211–12, fig. 34 (color).
Ian Alteveer. "On Pause and Polyphony: Martin Wong's 'Attorney Street'." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 78 (Fall 2020), p. 12, fig. 7 (color).
Andrew Strombeck. DIY on the Lower East Side: Books, Buildings, and Art After the 1975 Fiscal Crisis. Albany, 2020, p. 80, calls it "Attorney St. Handball Court".
Tessa Solomon. "The Human Instamatic: Martin Wong's Visionary Paintings of New York Continue to Intrigue." artnews.com. June 7, 2021, ill. (color).
Barry Blinderman. "Martin Wong's Chains of Desire." evergreenreview.com. Spring/Summer 2022, calls it "Attorney Street Handball Court".
Shanté Paradigm Smalls. Hip Hop Heresies: Queer Aesthetics in New York City. New York, 2022, pp. 26, 31, 46–49, 171 n. 58, p. 172, nn. 63, 65.
Sofie Krogh Christensen inMartin Wong: Malicious Mischief. Ed. Krist Gruijthuijsen and Augustín Pérez Rubio. Exh. cat., Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid. Cologne, 2022, pp. 90–91, 93, 334, ill. pp. 100–101 (color).
Augustín Pérez Rubio inMartin Wong: Malicious Mischief. Ed. Krist Gruijthuijsen and Augustín Pérez Rubio. Exh. cat., Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid. Cologne, 2022, pp. 141, 146.
Martin Wong Foundation, Asian American Art Initiative, and Stanford Libraries. Martin Wong Catalogue Raisonné. Online resource [exhibits.stanford.edu/martin-wong], 2024 (accessed), ill. (color).
Marsden Hartley (American, Lewiston, Maine 1877–1943 Ellsworth, Maine)
1914
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
