Wong Keen (, born 23 November 1942) is a Singaporean painter who was primarily trained in New York. He is known for being one of the first Singaporean artists to be educated in the United States and for his syncretic body of work that melds together the sensibilities of Chinese literati painting and the New York School. His practice, unusual for his generation, has led to him being described as "Singapore's first abstract expressionist". From 1969 to 1996, Wong also founded and operated Keen Gallery in New York, a framing studio and exhibition space.
A protégé of the pioneer artist Chen Wen Hsi while also training under Liu Kang, Wong counts among the second generation of Singaporean artists. His early works bore distinctive features of the Nanyang School, with an emphasis on cubist and fauvist modernist ideas. After enrolling in the Art Students League of New York in 1961, his practice has broadened to include influences from abstract expressionism, colour field painting, and action painting, all the while maintaining an affinity with Chinese calligraphic aesthetics and the idiosyncratic compositional forms of Bada Shanren.
Wong's preferred media reflects his diverse aesthetic inheritance and includes oil paint, Chinese ink and colour, acrylic paint, and collage, executed on canvas, archival paper, and rice paper. Preferring to work with the same subject matter over long periods of time, Wong's oeuvre has often been categorised serially, with his paintings of nudes, lotuses, and flesh being particularly prominent.
Wong Keen's practice is currently based in Singapore.
Early life (1942–1961)
Family Wong Keen was born in the first year of the Japanese Occupation, the second child of Wong Chennan () and Chu Hen-Ai (). Both were teachers, at the Chinese High School and the Nanyang Girls' High School respectively. The family resided at the Chinese High School Teachers' Quarters, part of a social circle that included pioneer artists such as Chen Wen Hsi, Liu Kang, Cheong Soo Pieng, and Chen Chong Swee, all of whom taught at the Chinese High School during Wong's formative years.
Both Wong sr. and Chu practiced Chinese calligraphy, and can be classified among the literati calligraphers of early Singapore. These calligraphers inherited the aesthetic sense of amateurism (as opposed to the professionalism of court painters) of dynastic Chinese scholar-officials, favouring spontaneity and an affinity for literature and belle lettres. Chu was especially serious in this pursuit, participating in many group exhibitions and even holding her own solo exhibition in 1997.Ho, Sou Ping (2011). "Wong Keen: Calligraphic Interactions". MA Thesis. Singapore: LaSalle College of the Arts. pp. 29-31. This familial setting would have an enduring influence on Wong; his early New York days would be marked by explorations into calligraphic aesthetics, and he would produce collages that fragmented and reassembled his mother's calligraphy throughout his career.
The Chinese High School shared many of its art teachers with the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) at this time and was an important incubator of young artistic talents. Departing from the earlier pedagogical directions of Richard Walker, who served as Art Superintendent Singapore Schools before the War, the Chinese High School's art education was grounded in modernism (particularly the School of Paris). The resources and emphasis the Chinese High School placed on art education was exceptional among schools in Singapore. Among its students that later took on a career in the fine arts were Ho Ho Ying and Goh Beng Kwan, both of whom were childhood friends of Wong.
Wong enrolled in the Chinese High School from 1955-56.
Learning to paint
Impressed by her son's sketches of figures in magazines, Chu arranged for Wong to take drawing lessons from family friend Liu Kang. Wong was then aged around 10-11. Wong soon went on to take more technical lessons with Chen Wen Hsi, focusing on oils and Chinese ink. Wong's relationship with Chen would become especially close and shaped Wong's early career. In 1957, Chen moved out of the Chinese High School Teachers' Quarters into his home and studio at 5 Kingsmead Road, where he hosted close students and conducted more in-depth art lessons. Between 1957 and 1961, Wong was a regular visitor to 5 Kingsmead Road, together with a group of friends that included Goh Beng Kwan. Wong worked on the in-situ mural Chen designed for his residence.
The years Wong studied with Liu and Chen was a formative period for modernist Singaporean art, later known as the Nanyang School of Art. Both Liu and Chen were involved in exhibitions that would later be recognised as foundational moments in the development of the movement. The Nanyang School of Art, or Nanyang Style, has been defined by art historian T. K. Sabapathy as a synthesis of Chinese ink scroll and School of Paris pictorial schemas, with an emphasis on subject matter that portrayed the reality of Southeast Asia.
Wong's early practice was influenced by the Nanyang School, as refracted through Chen. Specifically, Wong inherited Chen's emphasis on cubist and fauvist ideas. This aesthetic direction is especially obvious in the oil painting Bicycle (1959), "demonstrating the teenager's interest in the cubist fragmentation of a flat pictorial plane and stark angular forms". Wong's early Chinese ink paintings were also affected by Chen's practice. Lotus (1956) exhibits tonal wash qualities valued by Chen, through his study of Bada Shanren, but with modernist compositional sensibilities. Perhaps more evident in his oil paintings, Wong's subject matter also conformed to the ideals of the Nanyang School—to depict the lived reality of Southeast Asia.
Entry into the art world (1957–1960) Wong's prodigious talent began to draw attention as he started to participate and exhibit in Singapore's broader art world. In 1956, he won the first prize in the 'C' Category of the Shell Art Competition. From 1957-1960, Wong was selected to show his works at each of the Singapore Art Society's Annual Open Exhibition; the invitation in 1957 made him the youngest artist (at the age of 15) to have shown in this series of exhibitions. These exhibitions were juried by the leading Singaporean artists such as Ho Kok Hoe, Georgette Chen, and Cheong Soo Pieng, and were one of the main venues through which aspiring artists established themselves.
His first major commission came in 1960, to paint a mural for the Lido Cinema on Orchard Road, operated by the Shaw Brothers. Due to Wong's departure from Singapore the next year, this commission was not fulfilled.
Wong's unusually young age was noted by the art community. Sin Chew Jit Poh introduced him as "one of Singapore's daring new painters"..."with his youthful ability and genius, he will bring extraordinary splendour to Singapore's art world." Chen Wen Hsi commented that "looking at these paintings, no one will believe that they were completed by a 19-year-old youth".
First solo exhibition (1961)
In 1961, following the acceptance of his application to the Art Students League of New York, Wong Keen held his first solo exhibition to fundraise for his studies. This exhibition, held at the National Library from July 1–5 (with an extended day), made 19-year-old Wong the youngest Malayan artist to hold a solo show. The exhibition was co-organised by the Singapore Art Society, the Society of Chinese Artists, and the Chinese High School Old Boys' Association.
The exhibition was very well-received, with 70 of the 75 exhibited paintings sold. Among the notable patrons of Wong's paintings were Lee Kong Chian, Tan Tsze Chor, Chng Pee Tong, and Tan Kong Piat. Lee purchased the most expensive painting on display at $700.
The Chinese-language newspapers ran a considerable amount of articles that featured the exhibition which together formed Wong's first sustained public exposure. The exhibition also featured in Marco Hsu's seminal work A Brief History of Malayan Art. Chen Wen Hsi wrote that "within my current students there are many with a talent for painting and a bright future. Wong Keen, who will shortly depart for his overseas studies, is exceptional within this group." Ho Ho Ying concluded the reportage with this appraisal: "Although he is mainly cubist in method, he is not restricted by cubism; the colours of fauvism and the imagery of abstract painting also play an important role in his art. He works to attain the most beautiful harmony within these three styles. With his industry, I believe that he will become an exemplary Malayan painter." Wong Keen departed Singapore in the same year on a freighter bound for New York with $200 for his expenses; the rest of the exhibition's proceeds went to his family.
Moving to New York (1961–1966)
Art Students League
New York of the early 1960s was where abstract expressionism had matured and been well-established; Stella Paul describes a "first generation" of abstract expressionists from 1943-mid 1950s that "effectively shifted the art world’s focus from Europe (specifically Paris) to New York in the postwar years". This departure from Parisian modernism (which heavily influenced the Nanyang School) was a major factor in Wong Keen's shift away from his previous practice.
The Art Students League, which Wong Keen enrolled in from 1961-1966, played a significant part in educating a new generation of artists working with recourse to abstract expressionism. Wong enrolled in the Life Drawing, Painting and Composition course instructed by faculty members Morris Kantor, Vaclav Vytlacil, and Sidney Gross over the period 1961-1965. The course required Wong to dedicate 3.5 hours a day, 5 days a week. Wong earlier years in New York were marked by a degree of poverty, requiring him to take up part-time jobs on top of selling his paintings. Following the award of the League's Ford Foundation tuition scholarship in 1964, which covered the cost of one course of his choice, he was able to concentrate more on his practice.
New York's intellectual atmosphere also allowed Wong to access the works of other New York School painters, many of whom will continue to influence Wong throughout his career. Among the most commonly cited sources of influence were Willem de Kooning, Francis Bacon, Richard Diebenkorn, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, and Mark Tobey. Part of Wong's study was outside of his curriculum at the League, as he sought out, interacted with, and gained insights from pioneering abstract expressionist artists such as Hans Hofmann and Theodoros Stamos. He visited the night classes of Theodoros Stamos on several occasions where they conversed on the subject of art and painting.
Of note among the various art forms that Wong acquainted himself with was the relatively young style of colour field painting. The painter Hans Hoffman, who was a champion of colour field painting, interacted with Wong through the League.
Wong's pioneering presence in New York was also notable for the role it played in Singaporean art history. The first notable artist of his generation to reside, practice, and study in the complex New York art world, Wong paved the way for later artists such as Goh Beng Kwan, Choey Kwoy Kay, and Chow Yin Tian to train in New York, personally guiding them through their application processes and shared his 2000 sq ft lodgings on Broadway with them; Goh would be the next notable artist to be accepted at the Art Students League, in 1962. He was also one of very few artists of Chinese origin based in New York at that time.
Solo shows (1963–1965) Wong produced a significant body of work as a student. He was reported in the New York World Telegram and Sun as having "painted almost 200 pictures since his arrival here a year ago". These works would form the basis of two solo exhibitions held in New York.