Tony Wong: Tony Wong Solo Exhibition

Born in 1948 in Taishan County in China’s Guangdong Province, Tony Wong spent his childhood years growing up with his family in Taishan, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. He attended middle school in Hong Kong and it was there that he developed a passion for painting. He would spend his evening hours perfecting his painting techniques at what he likes to call the “Seacliff Art Institute.”1

In 1966 he left Hong Kong and immigrated to the United States where he began studies at The Art Institute of Chicago in 1968. His arrival coincided with the height of the turbulent era during the Vietnam War (1959-1975). Upon graduation in 1972, he enrolled in graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned two master’s degrees.2After finishing his studies he left Berkeley in 1975 and took a position as a teaching assistant at Illinois State University at Normal, Illinois.

In 1977, Wong walked away from teaching and headed off to develop amidst the arts scene of New York City. He had been holding periodic exhibitions in galleries in San Francisco and Los Angeles since 1974. During his time in New York, Wong took on part time jobs to make ends meet, even working as a truck driver at one point.

The few works currently available to use from Wong’s early period from 1978 to 1980 for the most part show a preference for a symmetrical orientation. The composition is relatively simple with the center of the painting acting as the observer’s visual focal point. The symbolic “Home” is full of the basic imagery he’d see at the time. People, birds and dogs congregate around a house, each engaged in their own posture and actions, all alluding their differing emotions and relationships with regard to “home.” Meanwhile, the painting’s imagery draws a rich sort of musical, theatrical or balletic association, imparting a distinctly lyrical, dreamlike quality to it.

On the characteristic surrealism in his work, Wong notes that the influence of surrealism and the work of French artist Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) was at its peak within the Art Institute of Chicago during the time he studied there. In addition, earlier in the 1960s, before Wong’s arrival, a group known as “the Chicago Imagists” emerged from the Chicago institute to challenge the New York arts scene on its own terms, incorporating the characteristics of surrealism into objective and even realist styles. 

But Wong is quick to point out that while his style may have some surrealist elements, it is not the same as “surrealism.”3In his writings and individual exhibitions of his work, Wong maintained a relatively keen interest in the European artistic aesthetic from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s. In the mid-1980s he was afforded greater opportunity for travel there due to his exhibition schedule. He specifically mentions the time he spent in Italy and the enormous influence seeing all that religious iconography had on his work at the time. At the same time he was developing a keen interest in mythology and that gradually became a creative element of his work.4

Despite Wong’s insistence that he has little interest in a dialectic between Western and Eastern painting,5his incorporation of traditional Chinese mythology, legends and narratives into his works seems to have begun at least as early as 1983, as in “Moon Searcher” (1983), “Broken Sky” (1984), “Paradoxical Path” (1985) and “August Moon” (1987). As he developed new themes, Wong’s compositions, although retaining the center of the painting as the visual focal point, became increasingly compact and three-dimensional in terms of their application of color and texture of the brushstrokes. 

When toying with new ideas, Wong has always generally first produced a prototype in oil pastel on paper before moving on to produce the full-sized work in oil. He continues that practice to this day. Worth noting is that since the early 1980s he has taken the heavy use of oil colors a step further, expanding to produce three-dimensional works. Although these works have the form of sculpture, Wong prefers to use the term “3-D painting” in referring to them. As he sees it, his sculptures retain the flat, two-dimensional compositional concept with a largely frontal orientation more closely related to painting. As for their cultural origins, Wong says his three-dimensional works are a marriage of Chinese folk art and Italian Renaissance sculpture.6

Within the Chinese-speaking world, academics are generally inclined to interpret Wong as a “neo-expressionist” artist. The earliest references to Tony Wong in Chinese-language periodicals were from the art critic Chen Ying Teh. In a 1986 essay, Chen asserted that Wong had initially “resided on the fringes of the mainstream” and it wasn’t until the early 1980s with the rise of “neo-expressionism” in European and American art circles that he gain “due recognition.” Chen specifically noted that Wong had by that time produced works that could be compared with those of the Italian artist Sandro Chia (1946- ) and the French artist Géhard Garouste (1946- ). In Chen’s view, the three shared refined skills in traditional oil painting “and further elucidate human issues through allegorical mythology in objective form.”7    

In fact, as has previously been stated, during Wong’s time at the Art Institute of Chicago a painting movement emerged from within that institute to contend with the “imagism” prevalent in the 1960s New York art scene. It is quite possible his style began to be forged there.

Furthermore, prior to the ascendancy of neo-expressionism into the mainstream of the New York arts scene, Marcia Tucker (1940-2006), director of New York’s New Museum, in early 1978 organized an exhibition under the ironic title “’Bad’ Painting” presenting the works of 14 artists from across the U.S.8Tucker asserted that the 14 artists employed highly “personal styles of figuration” and freely “mix classical and popular art-historical sources, kitsch and traditional images, archetypal and personal fantasies.”9

At the end of that same year, the Richard Marshall of Whitney Museum of American Art, also in New York, invited 10 American artists to show their works at the Whitney-organized “New Image Painting” exhibition.10

In a critique of the “New Image Painting” exhibition, the artist David Salle (1952- ) distinctly noted: “One senses imagery creeping into the arena of New York painting and sculpture.” Conversely, Salle believed that the “formalist hegemony, with its concern for ‘pure’ perception, [was] breaking up.” People seem to want to look at pictures of things again,” he concluded pithily.11

Be it the “’Bad’ Painting” or New Image Painting” exhibition, Wong had already arrived and was living in New York at the time these exhibitions were held and he was most certainly was familiar with them. Although American Neo-expressionism, which rose to prominence in 1980, on the surface appears markedly different from “New Image Painting,” deep down the two movements are intrinsically related, according to American art historian Irving Sandler. What’s more, Sandler further argued, the later advent of Neo-expressionism was actually upon the foundations of New Image Painting.12

In any case, when Wong arrived in New York, probably already well versed in the style of the Chicago Imagists, the New York art scene was in the midst of new waves of formalist, imagist, narrativist and expressionist movements and the characteristics of all these movements are reflected in his work since the 1980s. In 1984, Wong was one of 24 artists invited to exhibit their works in the American Pavilion at the 41^st La Biennale in Venice. The organizing director of the American Pavilion that year in Venice was none other than the aforementioned Marcia Tucker, organizer of the New Museum’s “’Bad’ Painting” exhibition.13Artists exhibiting along with Wong in Venice that year included a number routinely classified as Neo-expressionists, the most notable examples among them being Eric Fischl (1948- ) and Roger Brown (1941-1997), one of the aforementioned Chicago Imagists.14

“Narrativism” is a key, fundamental characteristic of Wong’s work. His works from the 1980s to the 1990s routinely show a distinct narrativist bent. Wong says as a child he listened to his grandmother tell countless Chinese folk tales and these later became the inspiration and source material for his works.15

Despite that, his works do not necessarily provide any specific emotional cues. In a brief 1985 essay, the American art critic Gerrit Henry (1950-2003) wrote: “While his paintings sometimes evoke the Chinese legends his grandmother told him as a child, the depend not so much on any specific legend as much as on the power of images to suggest a story that is allusively meaningful to all.”16

In other words, although Wong broadly draws upon mythological, legendary and classical literary themes, he avoids sinking into mere illustrative interpretation through deft tinkering. 

“My paintings can tell stories but have no fixed meaning,” Wong has said. “Ultimately, it is up to the observer to draw their own conclusions as to the meaning”17

After the transformation, the narrative characteristics of Wong’s works remain but the emotional context is concealed, leaving only the circumstances. As such, his works leave space for the open analysis and interpretation of the observer and are sometimes unavoidably murky, mysterious and even ambiguous.

During the 1980s much of Wong’s work seemed preoccupied with exploring themes of love and marriage; perhaps a reflection on his own personal circumstances at the time. He created various scenarios depicting the basest human emotional states such as sexual desire, seduction, nostalgia, hope, deceit and bewilderment. Aside from that, there is a larger body of work that broadly depicts or explores themes involving the conditions in which people exist. Nevertheless, in both the former and the latter works, there seems to be no exceptionally obvious indication of a sort of preordained solitude or sadness in life.

As previously stated, the purpose of Wong’s use of mythology, legend and classical literary allusion is not to use the techniques of painting or sculpture to interpret or augment their meaning. It would be more characterized as conveniently lifting from those sources in an effort to reproduce the unusual circumstances we face in life while simultaneously creating a sense of familiarity in the imagery to emphasize the banality of the circumstances. What’s more, the scenarios he crafts also seem to all be mired in some bizarre dilemma, thus further accentuating the imperfection of the real world and life’s predestination. “Paradoxical Path” (1985), accomplished through use of literary allusion to the inevitable fate of the Monkey King (Sun Wukong) when he tries to escape from the palm of Sakyamuni Buddha in the classic tale Journey to the West, is a prime example of Wong’s explorations on this type of theme.

Everyone has aspirations so it’s tough to avoid the fate of having one’s dreams come to naught. Liberty and desire, and their mutual entanglement or restraint, are an unavoidable fact of life. These are the themes we see Wong’s work grappling with throughout the 1980s. The characters in his works are always tottering between the desires of their imagination and the wake-up-call of reality. The contradiction between this sort of aspiration and its attainability is something each of us must squarely face on our own; no one else can do it for us. Whether in his painting or his sculpture, each of the scenarios Wong crafts is a metaphor for life’s journey. In “Moon Searcher” (1983) and “Paddler” (1984), for example, the image of the solitary naked man in the boat emphasizes the solitude, limitations and fragility of life. And just what are the people in “Hunt” (1986) and “Search” (1986) so frantically carrying on about? Who exactly is the opponent the fighters depicted in “Beating the Spring” (1989) and “Brawl” (1996) are facing? Or as posed in “Chameleon” (1985) and “Impersonation” (1985), should people simply pander to the material all for the sake of survival? These are all the human condition and since there is no standard answer, there can also be no absolute truth to speak of. In this life, especially when facing unpalatable choices, we must still live with ourselves and take responsibility for the consequences of our choices.

In the three years following his participation in the 1984 Venice Biennale, Wong received an increasing number of opportunities to travel to Europe to exhibit his work, particularly in Italy. He meanwhile had his debut solo exhibition in New York in 1985. Between 1987 and 1993 he served as artistic therapist for mentally ill patients at St. Francis Friends of the Poor. In 1992, Wong’s works were exhibited in Taiwan. In 1993 he began conducting solo exhibitions in Taiwan and has been a regular on the Taiwan arts scene ever since.

Since 1991 Wong has incorporated increasingly evident Chinese formal elements into his works. The 1991 work “Infinity,” for example, cites the creation myth of Furshi having coitus with the goddess and makes use of forms already familiar from Chinese art history as his iconographic reference. Religious sagas near and dear to the ordinary folk, in particular allusions to the “Eight Fairies [Immortals]” of Taoism, can also be seen in several of Wong’s 1993 works, including a work of sculpture directly named for the “Eight Fairies [Immortals]” and another, “Flautist,” prompts one to draw association with the immortal Han Xiangzi playing the flute. Additionally, the ancient classic Buddhist story “Nine-Colored Deer” may have served as the inspiration for and formal source of the imagery of the deer with a man in its mouth seen in the 1998 works “Eclipse” or “Before the Eclipse. ”

Wong also seems to have gotten more involved in sculpture during the 1990s. As his use of traditional Chinese elements in his works accelerated and increasing amount of imagery related to mountains, water, trees, rocks and flora also began to appear in his sculpture. His three-dimensional forms not only draw an association with the Taihustone used in traditional Chinese gardens, at the same time they intricately sculpted and delicately pruned bonsailandscapes. Further, the effect of the complex and three-dimensional color mixing he employs is reminiscent of the decorative characteristics ordinarily seen in adornments on ceramic pieces and silks since the Qing era and often evident in other folk arts.18The heavy layering and sense of commotion in the three-dimensional oils are, of course, not only capable of driving an emotional response in the observer, they also call to mind passion and powerful expressive style of that vanguard of modern painting Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890).19

Beginning in the mid-1990s, Wong began to make a more unambiguous return to single-character themes, as in a theatrical soliloquy, ballet solo or one’s innermost mumblings to oneself. Some of Wong’s themes from the 1980s carried over into the 1990s, such as the unchanged image of the fighters shadowboxing; the lizard from the original “Chameleon” and “Impersonation” (1985) continues climbing the tree as before, only now it’s lost its protective coloring and become a naked man in “The Fool” (1994), the social climber remains hard at work, it’s just a different guy in “Newcomer” (1995). The reiteration of this sort of theme seems to emphasize that life is illusory and people’s bewilderment remains undiminished. The otherworldly paradise that lurks in our hearts day and night may ultimately turn out to be a vast emptiness, our hopes in vain. During this period, Wong was revealing even more frustrations, aggravations and insecurities.

 Most critics believe Wong’s work to possess a highly allegorical quality. For his part, Wong feels that any “mythological” symbolism that may be contained in his works is purely personal.20

   If one were to assert that “allegory” is a form of narrative, then his works certainly possess similarity of form. Wong’s “allegory” seeks to recreate human emotion and real circumstances through application of metaphor and metonymy, with no intent of accentuating any symbolic moral, social, political or religious meaning. Moreover, the personification of abstract values is an often-used “allegorical” expressive technique that aims to be educational. On this point, Wong’s work fits the “allegorical” characteristic bill, primarily in his crafting of the sorts of symbolic situations to portray specific human conditions.

Since 2000, Wong has created a number of works with a floral motif. The flowers serve as a literary symbolic marker, ordinarily denoting temporary bliss or even a brazen irony. Although the flowers appear beautiful and their fragrance is pleasing to the olfactory sense, they are fleeting in duration – blooming then wilting and dying, as with youth and beauty in a person. As Shakespeare write in one of his sonnets: “Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”21

 In utilizing the “four noble masters” theme so beloved in Chinese literary painting, representing spring, summer, autumn and winter through lovely plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo and chrysanthemums, Wong likewise expresses feelings about time. The angst and pain of our illusory youth also appears in a number of works expounding on the “candle in the wind” theme. In “Time Keeper” (2002), “Spot” (2008) and “Nightcrawling” (2008), for example, Wong clearly borrows from the familiar “enjoying the night with candles in hand” allusion from classical Chinese literature and painting to express the frustration and helplessness in trying to hold back the hands of time. 

Placed within the same context, perhaps we can better understand why during the same time frame Wong also produced several works on a “peach tree” theme, as in “Revival” (2002) and “Peach Tree” (2007). In classical Taoist literature, the xian taoand the pan tao are varieties of peach that are reputed to grant immortality. In The Eight Immortals, Ho Xian-gu ascends to the heavens and becomes an immortal after she eats a xian taoa Taoist priest gives to her. For if the passage of time is, as Confucius said on the river, “time passes like the flow of the river, day and night without pause,” how can people preserve their youth and not age? Has ever there been a life that did not end?

Although Wong’s works depict life as short and cruel, it remains, as always, full of extraordinary detours and uncertain variables, as seen in “Orb” (2001). The 2008 “Five Senses Series” is Wong’s latest tour de force. In these paintings, Wong uses an overhead perspective of a mountain landscape as a background, symbolizing nature, time and eternity. He then sketches out a bust of a human head oddly hovering over the surface of the landscape. Wong’s definition of the “five senses” was initially rooted in the precepts of Chinese fortune telling, i.e. the ears, eyes, nose, mouth and brow. These are all conduits to our perception of the outside world and, because of the reality of human limitations; they are also a source of deceit and temptation. 

Wong explores frothing rhetoric, as in “Orator” (2005) and “Bubble” (2007); and silver-tongued eloquence, as in the 2007 works “Portray 1” and “Portray 2.” Although these facets of everyday life often seem absurd, they are tough for people to abandon and it’s inevitable that some will be persuadable. In both cases, the generally fragile state of humanity and illusory nature of life are more prominently exposed.

Now in his 60s, Wong seems to have few doubts and little confusion about life. In his early works, the people were constantly searching, striving to find a place of tranquility but as a consequence reveal a variety of insecurities and anxieties. To this day he continues to depict the human condition, or predicament, through the crafting of scenarios. Only these days his themes no longer seek to reveal the peculiarities of life. As can be discerned in his later works, the soaring or floating figure of a naked man appears markedly more frequently, a seeming release of the spirit to roam freely. Relative to the prevailing neurotic whininess, the weight of reality can be deftly understood and dissembled. In “Nightfall” (2004), “Return” (2008) and “Plucking Stars” (2009), Wong seems to be hinting at a desire to return to the source of life and its original essence.

  The world of today is both bewildering and deafening and Wong has long since ceased to roll along with it. Throughout different stages of life differing life circumstances he has continued to offer his observations and impressions. His third person narrative infuses the first person interpretation. He manipulates the visual oil color medium to create a world of richly tactile imagery and develop it into an emotionally powerful vehicle for various human impulses. 

Returning to Gerrit Henry’s 1985 essay, he characterized Wong’s creative direction in terms of blending elements.

“”[H]e Westernizes his Oriental sources with an Expressionist style, even as he Orientalizes this style of painting by making it lyrical, benign and calm. In a sense, he civilizes Expressionism …”

Wong has explored the similarities, not the differences, between East and West,” Henry adds in conclusion.22

And this observation would seem to hold as true today, with nearly 25 years of hindsight, as it did then.