Landscape

The brightly coloured landscape painting of Wesley Tongson offers an alternative window to look into the artist’s mind. Mostly withdrawn from the world, Tongson found consolation and joy in the pure act of painting. Landscape (Lot 811) witnesses his exploration of the splashed ink technique, which he began to paint as early as the late 1970s while studying in Canada. With great admiration for 20th century renowned Chinese painter Zhang Daqian, Tongson’s splashed ink paintings echo the loftiness of the master’s work. Also in the same technique Tongson created Guanyin (Lot 810) with a complex composition, revealing subtly a seated Guanyin through a web of semi-transparent ink washes. One can easily see the artist’s skilful application of bright mineral colours and his manipulation of the semi-autonomous method to create an atmospheric mountain landscape. “I believe that artistic creation requires purity, passion, and integrity,” he once said, “without which no good work of art can ever be produced.”