Down for the Count

The everyday becomes extraordinary in Martin Wong’s Down for the Count. Borrowing heavily from Renaissance depictions of the death of Christ, the work posits tragedy and defeat against the victor’s raw, masculine strength. The heroic boxer appears to be fighting for much more than a simple match. Wong based his theatrical urban scenes on Manhattan’s Lower East Side—then an impoverished, mostly black and Hispanic neighborhood with a thriving artistic community.

2002.26.18