Victor Wang | Boat | Red Boat
The intoxication of raw emotion and the morbid beauty of war and violence are locked in perpetual motion. The attempt to translate these intangible feelings and thoughts into a physical form has been a pursuit of humans for our whole existence, and very few get close. In consequence, the human body has been a central subject and motif for much human visual communication. Many distinguished artists have explored the concept of body within their works, and figurative art is a key component of Western art history. Artist Victor Wang has become notable in recent years for exploring socio-cultural and historical contexts in his striking paintings, which focus on the human experience.
Born in the mid-twentieth century, Wang grew up in the sunflower fields of northern China. Shortly after graduating from high school, he was sent to a labour camp in the country for ‘re-education’ during China’s Cultural Revolution. At this camp he was subjected to gruelling farm work, often working in corn and sunflower fields from sunrise to sunset. As a consequence sunflowers became imprinted on Wang’s mind as symbols of deception, evoking both personal joy and sadness. This later became inspiration for many of his paintings. Wang left China for America in the early 1980s. He attended several Art Schools and Academies, collecting an impressive array of awards for his oil paintings and portraiture in his later years. From the late 1990s to the present, Wang has taught at several prestigious universities and continues to produce many inspiring works.
Unlike most of Wang’s more traditional paintings, Boat (2010/2014) combines oil paint and collage, and is constructed using two differently sized canvases: a larger square centred above a smaller square... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
Victor Wang, Red boat, 2012. Oil and collage on canvas, 62 x 80 inches.
