{
"data": {
"id": 170844,
"accession_number": "2013.33",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "My Heart is the Universe, c. 2000. Irene Chou (Chinese, 1924\u20132011). Ink, color, and acrylic on silk; overall: 63.5 x 95.9 cm (25 x 37 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Whitehill Art Purchase Endowment Fund, 2013.33",
"current_location": null,
"title": "My Heart is the Universe",
"creation_date": "c. 2000",
"creation_date_earliest": 2000,
"creation_date_latest": 2005,
"artists_tags": [
"Asian (from 1900 to present)",
"female"
],
"culture": [
"China"
],
"technique": "ink, color, and acrylic on silk",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Chinese Art",
"collection": "Chinese Art",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Overall: 63.5 x 95.9 cm (25 x 37 3/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.635,
"height_inch": 25,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.959,
"width_inch": 37,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.75
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "signed by the artist with five of the artist's seals",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Irene Chou's solo exhibition. Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong (2003).",
"opening_date": "2003-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 242). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 7-July 7, 2015).",
"opening_date": "2015-01-07T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "The artist's collection, Brisbane, Australia, by descent to the artist's family",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "c. 2000\u2013after 2011",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Lok Ku Gallery Ltd., Hong Kong, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?\u20132013",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "2013\u2013",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Chou applied her so-called impact textural strokes (jixian cun) by hitting a wet brush against a rod to splatter ink on the silk painting surface.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "This painting belongs to a series of Irene Chou\u2019s late work, inspired by two lines of the Southern Song idealist and neo-Confucian philosopher Lu Jiuyuan: \"The universe is my mind, and my mind is the universe.\"
The background of ink wash is suffused with a brilliant green to create a depth of infinite space\u2014\"the symbolic depth, the depth from one\u2019s heart and mind,\" as Chou says. In the midst of this infinite space is a small modulated sphere, her \"inner self.\" The sphere echoes with the red disc and red lines of veins, which are the abstract symbols for the artist\u2019s communion with the cosmic system. This painting communicates an exuberant joy and absolute freedom, as Chou searches for mystical oneness with the universe.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60481884"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Chung, Anita. \u201c2013 Acquisitions: Chinese Art.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 54, no. 2 (March/April 2014): 21.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 21",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2014-02"
},
{
"citation": "Chung, Anita. \"Body, Mind, and Cosmos: The ink paintings of Irene Chou.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 55, no. 3 (May/June 2015): 14\u201315.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 15",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2015-03"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2013.33",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Whitehill Art Purchase Endowment Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 170844,
"creators": [
{
"id": 63436,
"description": "Irene Chou (Chinese, 1924\u20132011)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": "\u5468\u7da0\u96f2",
"birth_year": "1924",
"death_year": "2011",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2013-05-28T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 2000,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 2000",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-07-04 11:16:29.938000"
}
}