Born in 1942 in Singapore, New York/Singapore-based artist Wong Keen’s art training began under Liu Kang and advanced under Chen Wen Hsi’s mentoring. In 1961 Wong left to study at The Art Students League, New York, and in 1963 received the League’s prestigious Edward G. McDowell Travelling Scholarship to travel and study in Europe. The lotus is an enduring symbol of purity and spirituality in Asian culture, and in Wong’s combined Chinese aesthetic and Western technical style the flower has a recurring presence. Here, in contrast with his more lyrical and representational lotus paintings of the late-1990s and the ‘Untitled (Lotus)’ of 2003, the lotus flowers are highly abstracted – the angular forms are almost floating in space, their colours unnatural. Yet, they are manifestations of Wong’s perspective: “I find that the lotus gives you strong forms. And there’s colour too. No two lotuses are the same colour or shape.”
