FEATURE | Bernice Bing: Bingo in Airmail News
September 26, 2024 - Elena Clavarino for Airmail News
Bernice Bing, Burney Falls, 1980.
Elena Clavarino for Airmail News
Bernice “Bingo” Bing’s youth wasn’t a waltz. She was born in 1936 in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and when she was six her American mother died. From then on it was foster care and orphanages, though there were times she stayed with her grandmother. Bing performed poorly in school but won an art award that took her to the California College of Arts and Crafts. There she was taught by Richard Diebenkorn and Saburo Hasegawa, who introduced her to Zen Buddhism and Chinese philosophy. In the 1970s, Bing began combining ancient calligraphy traditions with abstract spiritual imagery. When she died of cancer in 1998, only 62, she was not yet widely recognized. This exhibition, the first solo show on the artist in New York, brings Bing’s gorgeous paintings into the spotlight. —Elena Clavarino
Back to News