Hi everyone and happy new year!
Today I want to share with you my reflection on Matthew Wong’s Retrospective, “The Realm of Appearances” at the Dallas Museum of Art in relation to my personal work. Over the winter break(because I am an educator so I get winter breaks) I went home to Dallas to visit family. Every time I go home I try to check out some artwork at the local museums. In order to be a productive artist, it’s important to be out of the studio as much as it is to be in it.
“Matthew Wong was a Canadian artist who enjoyed growing acclaim for his lush, dreamlike scenes that play on a rich tradition of art historical precedents. His work depicts the vivid but often melancholy terrain between sleep and wakefulness, lonely landscapes and isolated interiors rendered with a carefree hand and an ebullient palette, yet which contain an ineffable sorrow and a palpable but unnamed longing” (https://www.phillips.com/artist/19154/matthew-wong)
I love Wong’s artwork. It’s dreamy color palette is so seductive and captivating. In particular I love his lush landscapes, use of hues and patterns, and loose mark making.
Here are some pieces that I found interesting and even similar to my own work.
The first work of art that drew me in was this piece titled “Snowfall”. Of course this drew me in because it reminded me of my own work “Kudzu People” (pictured below) where I found human forms within nature.
Some of Wong’s earlier works had lone figures within landscapes that were very interesting. However what became more intriguing in his work is the absence of human forms. His work explores interesting hues and line work with perspectives inspired by traditional Chinese landscape paintings.
These particular pieces of Wong’s “Path to the Sea” and “Somewhere” are great examples of his use of pattern and line work within a botanical landscape. I related it to my piece “The Bathers” (pictured below) which explored line work, hue and patterns within nature as well.
Finally, what I found to be Wong’s strongest works, were his blue paintings “Blue Night” and “Tracks in the Blue Forest”.
Because this particular mix of cobalt and ultramarine are my favorite blues, I was especially drawn to these two pieces. I also enjoyed the simplicity of the paintings with their flat ground.
I related this to my piece “Grounding Technique”(pictured below). I found it to be interesting that we both found the look of dark forest with a flat ground and blue sky. In fact, it’s a very strange similarity!
I found Matthew Wong’s retrospective to be very inspiring and also interesting that elements of my pieces were similar to his.
If you’re visit DFW I would highly recommend checking it out.
Happy New Year and happy art making!
