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. Traditionally, self-portraits offer an artist a free and readily available subject, serving as studies in perspective and proportion. In Wong’s larger than life size ‘Self Portrait’, it appears that the artist is indeed studying himself, executing his likeness in confident yet loose lines. The canvas surface is filled with seemingly random ‘doodles’ one might make while lost in thought, or when experimenting with mark-making and colours. The lotus flower at the top of the large canvas, however, invites an alternative interpretation of this self-study – one of a (spiritual) reflection of the self by the artist.
