Uncovering more layers of Matthew Wong: a retrospective of an emerging artist

When emerging artists pass away unexpectedly, there is a tendency to mythologize certain aspects of their lives and careers. For some painters, popular narratives focus on how they were supposedly at their artistic peak, along with discussions of their mental health and how their market skyrocketed. Figures like Jackson Pollock and Jean-Michel Basquiat serve as examples where this occurred.

Matthew Wong received similar treatment after his tragic death by suicide in 2019 at age 35. The recent retrospective of Wong's works at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which originated from the Dallas Museum of Art, changed a lot of perspectives.

This tightly curated show, overseen by Vivian Li, cuts through exaggerated narratives surrounding Wong's legacy. It portrays him not as a prodigy, but as a talented artist still finding his way, as a Canadian of Asian descent exploring his place in the world. Featuring a focused selection of 40 works, it offers a nuanced perspective that needed revising from overly dramatic retellings of Wong's story in the four years since his passing.

Often Wong has been labeled self-taught, implying he instantly discovered his Fauvism-influenced color palette and swirling compositional techniques with little guidance. However, as this exhibition skillfully demonstrates, that label does not fully capture the developing nature of his artistic journey. It presents a more balanced understanding of Wong as an artist continuing to refine his vision and techniques with time, outside of reductive narratives of overnight genius. Wong had pursued formal art education, attending school in Hong Kong and obtaining an MFA in photography. Initially, he took to the streets of Hong Kong to shoot spontaneous photographs of unaware subjects in the style of Daido Moriyama. While these early photographic works are not part of the exhibition, they are reproduced in the accompanying catalog, demonstrating Wong had training and was exposed to influential artists prior to focusing on painting. This provides important context that refutes overly simplistic tales of his artistic development occurring without guidance or schooling.

See You on the Other Side (2019), Wong's final painting pushes the limits of avoiding direct interpretations related to mental health. It features a lone figure sitting on a cliff's edge, with a distant house dwarfed by a vast expanse of empty white space. This somber painting appears toward the end of the exhibition, but it is not the last thing viewers encounter. That honor goes to brochures provided with resources for those contemplating suicide.