Image size: 71 x 49.5 cm
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. ‘New Year Prosperity’ is an example of Wong’s early experimentations with collage and ink, an attempt by the artist to condense his Chinese heritage and Western art training within the work. The work features a collaged picture of a lotus flower that is superimposed against a gestural Chinese ink sketch of the lotus stem and leaves. In the 1990s Wong would pursue these collage and painting experimentations further in his ‘Cesura’ series. This work was selected by Unicef for publication as a greeting card in Asia in 1989.
