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. During the 1960s, Wong was drawn to Abstract Expressionism for its energetic and spontaneous use of paint to express emotion. In this painting, Wong has included some of those Abstract Expressionist elements such as the gestural and dripping strokes and the geometric blocks or ‘fields’ of emotive colour. However, he also retained figurative references in the form of the chair and bed, and what are possibly a reclining nude at left and on the bed. The primarily muted maroon palette is bisected with a slash of vivid green and pink, creating two-in-one spatial perspectives.
