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Matthew Wong

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For the American bassist, see Matt Wong.
Matthew Wong
Born(1984-03-08)March 8, 1984
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
DiedOctober 2, 2019(2019-10-02) (aged 35)
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
EducationUniversity of Michigan & City University of Hong Kong
OccupationPainter

Matthew Wong (Chinese: 王俊傑;[1] March 8, 1984 – October 2, 2019) was a Canadian artist. Self-taught as a painter, Wong received critical acclaim for his work before his death in 2019 at the age of 35.[2][3][4] Roberta Smith, co-chief art critic at The New York Times, has praised Wong as "one of the most talented painters of his generation."[5]

Biography

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Wong was born in Toronto in 1984.[6] His family emigrated to Hong Kong when Wong was seven.[6] When he was fifteen, his family returned to Canada, in part to support the treatment of Wong's autism.[6][7] Wong then attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, completing a degree in cultural anthropology in 2007.[7] He returned to Hong Kong the same year. In 2010 he enrolled at the City University of Hong Kong School of Creative Media, receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree in photography in 2012.[8][9][6][10]

Wong had Tourette syndrome and suffered from depression throughout his adult life.[6][7] He died by suicide in 2019 at age 35 in Edmonton, Alberta.[8][6][7]

Art career

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Wong's creative work began with experiments with photography in 2009 and continued during his time as a student of photography at City University in Hong Kong. Unsatisfied with the idea of becoming a photographer, in 2014 Wong told Neoteric Magazine that "towards the end of my degree I felt I had gained no real skills or prospects that could take me forward in the professional world."[11][12] In 2012 he began experimenting with drawing.[8] He began painting landscapes in 2014.[8][9][12][13]

In 2016 he returned to Canada, settling in Edmonton.[8][12] Wong posted his paintings to Facebook and attracted the attention of Matthew Higgs, curator and director of White Columns Gallery.[12] Wong attained his first institutional recognition when the Dallas Museum of Art acquired his work, The West, in 2017. The DMA was the only museum to acquire a painting by Wong during his lifetime.[14] Wong went on to exhibit at galleries in New York and Hong Kong. Critic Jerry Saltz called Wong's 2018 solo exhibition at Karma Gallery “one of the most impressive solo New York debuts I’ve seen in a while.”[12]

Due to their scarcity in the open market, Wong's works have attracted interest on the auction market. His Edmonton studio remains untouched.[15]

Solo exhibitions and retrospectives

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Collections

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His work is included in public collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[26] the Museum of Modern Art, New York,[27] the Dallas Museum of Art,[28] the Aishti Foundation and the Estée Lauder Collection.[29]

Record sale prices

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In 2020, a small watercolor on paper simply called Untitled was sold for four times its original estimate price after attracting a number of bids.[30][31] His first large painting available in an auction, The Realm of Appearances, was sold in July 2020 for US$1.82 million, twenty times its original estimate.[32][33] In December 2020, a painting called River at Dusk was sold for $4.86M, four times its original estimate.[34]

References

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  1. ^ "Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre Newsletter Oct-Dec 2015 -- 地的動脈 - 王俊傑繪畫 Pulse of the Land - Matthew Wong Paintings" (PDF).
  2. ^ Archive, Asia Art. "Matthew Wong: Chapter One". aaa.org.hk. Archived from the original on 2020-06-06. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  3. ^ "'He was just starting': The exceptional life and artistic legacy of Matthew Wong". Archived from the original on 2020-07-08. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  4. ^ "Matthew Wong". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2021-09-25. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  5. ^ Smith, Roberta (2019-12-24). "A Final Rhapsody in Blue From Matthew Wong". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2021-02-03. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Genzlinger, Neil (2019-10-21). "Matthew Wong, Painter on Cusp of Fame, Dies at 35". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2019-10-23. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  7. ^ a b c d "Edmonton autistic artist remembered for achieving 'improbable territory' | CBC News".
  8. ^ a b c d e Russeth, Andrew (October 6, 2019). "Matthew Wong, Whose Indelible Canvases Charted New Paths for Landscape Painting, Is Dead at 35". ARTNews. Archived from the original on October 7, 2019. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  9. ^ a b "Matthew Woncg (1984–2019)". ArtForum. 7 October 2019. Archived from the original on 7 October 2019. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  10. ^ Wong, Miss (2014-10-29). "They are artists: Matthew Wong". Archived from the original on 2021-02-03. Retrieved 2021-05-02.
  11. ^ "NeotericArt". www.jasminedirectory.com. Archived from the original on 2020-06-26. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  12. ^ a b c d e Freeman, Nate (7 October 2019). "The Art World Remembers Matthew Wong, Self-Taught Painter of Vibrant Landscapes, Who Has Died at 35". Artnet News. Archived from the original on 7 October 2019. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  13. ^ "Remembering Matthew Wong Through His Dreamy, Otherworldly Landscapes". ArtNews. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  14. ^ Solomon, Tessa (2022-02-24). "Matthew Wong's Luminous Landscapes Will Have First U.S. Museum Retrospective in Dallas". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2024-05-30.
  15. ^ "Matthew Wong's Life in Light and Shadow". New Yorker. 9 May 2022. Archived from the original on 9 May 2022. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  16. ^ "Matthew Wong | Vincent van Gogh: Painting as a Last Resort". Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Archived from the original on 2024-04-29. Retrieved 2024-04-29.
  17. ^ "Matthew Wong: The Realm of Appearances". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Archived from the original on 2023-07-31. Retrieved 2023-07-31.
  18. ^ "Matthew Wong: The Realm of Appearances". matthewwong.dma.org. Archived from the original on 2024-05-30. Retrieved 2024-05-30.
  19. ^ "Matthew Wong: The Realm of Appearances". Dallas Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 2024-05-30. Retrieved 2024-05-30.
  20. ^ Ritchie, Kevin (2021-08-04). "Major show devoted to Caribbean history to open at AGO". NOW Magazine. Archived from the original on 2021-08-17. Retrieved 2021-08-17.
  21. ^ "10 must-see art exhibitions in Hong Kong in February 2019". Lifestyle Asia Hong Kong. 2019-02-02. Archived from the original on 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  22. ^ "Matthew Wong's Hallucinatory Pilgrimages". Hyperallergic. 2018-04-22. Archived from the original on 2021-04-18. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  23. ^ Saltz, Jerry (2018-04-19). "Losing Myself in the Paintings of Facebook-Educated Matthew Wong". Vulture. Archived from the original on 2021-03-22. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  24. ^ "Matthew Wong, Biography - galerie frank elbaz". www.galeriefrankelbaz.com. Archived from the original on 2024-07-14. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  25. ^ "ArtAsiaPacific: Obituary Matthew Wong 1984 2019". Archived from the original on 2023-12-06. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  26. ^ "Garden with Cosmic Vase 2016 Matthew Wong". www.metmuseum.org. Archived from the original on 2021-02-08. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  27. ^ "Matthew Wong. Unknown Pleasures. 2019 | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  28. ^ "The West - DMA Collection Online". Archived from the original on 2019-10-22. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  29. ^ "Matthew Wong". Karma. Archived from the original on 2020-02-25. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  30. ^ "Sotheby's Online Contemporary Sale Fetches $13.7 Million—More Than Doubling the Previous Record for a Virtual Art Sale, Set Three Weeks Ago". artnet News. 2020-05-15. Archived from the original on 2020-06-06. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  31. ^ Gleadell, Colin (2020-05-15). "Inside the record-shattering online bidding war between Frieze and Sotheby's". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 2024-07-14. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  32. ^ "Matthew Wong | The Realm of Appearances". Sotheby's. Archived from the original on 2024-07-14.
  33. ^ "A rising star before he died, Matthew Wong's art is fetching millions". South China Morning Post. 2020-07-02. Archived from the original on 2020-08-04. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
  34. ^ "Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara Dominates Hong Kong Joint Auction | Auctions News | THE VALUE | Art News". TheValue.com. Archived from the original on 2020-12-05. Retrieved 2020-12-04.

Further reading

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