Attorney Street (Handball Court with Autobiographical Poem by Piñero)

Martin Wong American
1982–84
Not on view
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Attorney Street (Handball Court with Autobiographical Poem by Piñero)
  • Artist: Martin Wong (American, Portland, Oregon 1946–1999 San Francisco, California)
  • Artist: Miguel Piñero (American (born Puerto Rico), Gurabo 1946–1988 New York)
  • Date: 1982–84
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: Painting+Artist frame: 42 in. × 54 1/4 in. (106.7 × 137.8 cm)
    Painting (without artist frame): 35 1/2 × 47 7/8 in. (90.2 × 121.6 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Edith C. Blum Fund, 1984
  • Object Number: 1984.110
  • Rights and Reproduction: © The Estate of Martin Wong
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

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.