“Mr. Wong made some of the most irresistible paintings I’ve ever encountered. I fell for the patchworks of color and stippled patterns of his landscapes… It was a visceral experience, like falling for an unforgettable song on first listen.”
U tterly iridescent and intricately layered, The Edge by Matthew Wong is one of the very last works created by the artist and was sold on the same day of his unt.mes ly death in 2019. Striking with its rhythmic cadence of dense brushwork, stylistic precision and tonal vibrancy, The Edge is typical of the artist’s most captivating and meditative dreamscapes. Entirely instinctual in its execution, The Edge is reflective of Wong’s ingeniously improvised technique of painting without preliminary sketching, underscoring the innate and unbridled talent of this entirely self-taught artist. Although the composition hinges upon spontaneity, the heavily worked surface signals a distinct intentionality and rumination, thus elevating The Edge above other examples by the artist. The selection of The Edge for the upcoming retrospective, Matthew Wong: The Realm of Appearances, at the Dallas Museum of Art in 2022-2023 reinforces its universal allure.
“It is a mistake to overlook the technical and aesthetic sophistication of his paintings, which are extraordinary for an artist who was largely self-directed in his learning and development. The bravura and skill evident in his handling of paint is one of the characteristics that prompted critics to refer to him as one of the most talented painters of his generation. The paintings have to be seen in person to be properly appreciated; no reproduction can do them justice.”
The lush green vegetation in The Edge cocoons the single, motionless figure, who gazes over the serenely still water behind, shimmering in the glow of dusk. The swirl of dense foliage not only creates an alluring and rich texture, it acts as a framing device for the solitary figure. The enclosed nature of the hedge and almost aerial perspective over the figure, shifts the relationship of the viewer to one of voyeurism. Indeed, the figure teetering at the shore of the lake in The Edge, suggests that we, as the viewer, are observing a private moment of profound reflection and reckoning. The emotional reverberations in this idyllic vista are poignantly haunting, given the prescient timing of the completion of this work just before the artist’s passing. The undertone of the brushwork in The Edge is laden with a complex and arresting sense of intimacy and artistic authenticity, as the artist ponders his own life. Having remained in the same private collects ion since it was acquired from Wong’s first significant champion, Karma, The Edge is entirely fresh to market. Enchantingly vulnerable, The Edge is a rarefied treasure that captures Matthew Wong’s final strokes of brilliance and the very essence of the solitary artist, reflecting on his profound and ultimate thoughts, fascinations and impulses.
