Strategic Hybridity and the (In)scrutable in Seong Moy’s Calligraphic Abstractions

This article considers the work of Chinese American artist Seong Moy (1921–2013), focusing on three color woodcuts featuring untranslatable phrases formed from pseudo-characters that the artist referred to as “inscriptions.” I argue for an interpretation of these prints as manifestations of a strategic hybridity that simultaneously destabilizes the viewer’s relationship to the image while also affirming a place in the art world for the artist as an American citizen of Chinese heritage. My research considers how Asian American artists’ use of specific formal elements, particularly abstraction and calligraphic gestures, can be understood as socially engaged and politically complex. This reading of Moy’s works is substantiated by my analysis of reviews, interviews, and other primary sources found in the Archives of American Art regarding Moy and the relationship between his identity as an artist and his racial heritage.