{{Short description|Taiwanese-American conceptual artist (1979–2025)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Rutherford Chang | image = File:Rutherford_Chang.jpg | caption = Chang in 2013, with his collection of first pressings of the Beatles' self-titled album | birth_date = {{birth date|1979|12|27}} | birth_place = Houston, Texas, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2025|01|24|1979|12|27}} | death_place = | education = Wesleyan University | occupation = Conceptual Artist | spouse = | parents = Jason Chang | website = {{url|https://rutherfordchang.com/}} | children = }}
'''Rutherford Chang''' (December 27, 1979 – January 24, 2025) was an American conceptual artist. His post-conceptual projects included a collection of 3,417 copies of the Beatles's self-titled 1968 album.<ref name="Kozinn">Kozinn, Allan (February 22, 2013). [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/arts/design/artists-obsession-with-beatles-white-album-on-display.html "A Plain White Square, and Yet So Fascinating"]. ''The New York Times''.</ref> At the age of 45, he died in Manhattan on January 24, 2025.{{r|NYT}}<ref>{{cite news |last=Tsui |first=Enid |date=February 12, 2025 |title=Obituary: Art world, family mourn artist Rutherford Chang, Taiwan semiconductor firm founder's son |url=https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3298368/american-chinese-artist-rutherford-chang-scion-taiwan-semiconductor-firm-dies-45 |work=South China Morning Post}}</ref>
==Formation== Chang was born on December 27, 1979, in Houston, Texas, to Taiwanese parents. His father was the billionaire Jason Chang. Chang grew up in Los Altos Hills, California. As a child, he enjoyed collecting, with one of his first collections being fruit stickers which he covered a binder with. He would go on to collect numerous other things, including receipts, postcards, baseball bats, hotel stationery, and old Chinese megaphones.{{r|NYT}} Chang majored in psychology and received a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University in 2002. During that time, he was housemates with Japanese artist Aki Sasamoto. He then worked as an artist assistant for Xu Bing in Manhattan for two years.{{r|NYT}}
==Conceptual art projects== In 2008, Chang collected around 4,000 ink-dot portraits from ''The Wall Street Journal'' and reorganized them alphabetically into a yearbook-style publication titled ''The Class of 2008''.<ref name="WSJ"/> Some portraits appeared multiple times, with that year's successful Presidential candidate Barack Obama appearing 94 times and his Republican rival John McCain appearing 74 times. In 2012, the project was displayed at the White Space Gallery in Beijing.{{r|NYT}}<ref name="WSJ">{{cite news |url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203753704577254653003053044.html |title=Chinese Artist Marks a Year of News in WSJ Portaits |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |date=March 1, 2016 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> Chang's conceptual art projects also included a block of 10,000 melted pennies and his attempts to beat the high score for ''Tetris''.{{r|G|NYT}}
==Beatles ''White Album'' project== Chang posted a photograph of each of his 3,417 ''The Beatles'' album covers (all white and numbered, as conceptualized by British conceptual artist Richard Hamilton) on Instagram at webuywhitealbums.<ref name="Kozinn" /><ref name="helter">"[https://hyperallergic.com/65570/we-sell-white-albums/ Helter Skelter! A Record Store that Only Stocks the ''White Album'']", February 21, 2013, Hyperallergic</ref> In 2013, Chang released a double vinyl noise music record in a limited edition of 800 called ''White Album x 100'' made by layering 100 copies of the Beatles' 1968 double LP ''The Beatles'', better known as the ''White Album'', playing simultaneously.<ref name="Kozinn" /><ref name="helter"/>
== References == <references>
<ref name=NYT>{{Cite news |last=Sandomir |first=Richard |date=February 9, 2025 |title=Rutherford Chang, Who Turned Collections Into Art, Dies at 45 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/arts/rutherford-chang-dead.html |access-date=February 10, 2025 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> <ref name=G>{{Cite news |last=Beaumont-Thomas |first=Ben |date=January 7, 2016 |title=Blockbusters: how Rutherford Chang became the second best Tetris player in the world |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jan/07/tetris-rutherford-chang-artist-nintendo-game-boy |access-date=February 10, 2025 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
</references>
== External links == * {{Official website|https://rutherfordchang.com/}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chang, Rutherford}} Category:1979 births Category:2025 deaths Category:American conceptual artists Category:Wesleyan University alumni Category:Artists from Houston Category:American people of Taiwanese descent