(Amsterdam) Des coups de pinceau expressifs, des couleurs vives et une vie troublée : des caractéristiques de Vincent Van Gogh qu’on retrouve dans l’histoire de Matthew Wong, un artiste sino-canadien mis à l’honneur dans une exposition inédite à Amsterdam.
« La peinture en dernier recours », accessible au public à partir de vendredi au musée Van Gogh, présente pour la première fois en Europe plus de 60 peintures de l’artiste déjà acclamé outre-Atlantique, qui s’est donné la mort en 2019, « à l’aube de la gloire ».
L’exposition met en lumière de nombreux paysages fantastiques colorés et énigmatiques, comprenant souvent des tons bleus mélancoliques, avec de hautes lignes d’horizon.
« Il y a tellement de similitudes avec l’approche de Van Gogh en matière de peinture », a déclaré mercredi le commissaire de l’exposition, Joost van der Hoeven, lors d’une avant-première.
Wong a appris à peindre en autodidacte à l’âge de 27 ans, tout comme Vincent. Il y a le travail expressif du pinceau et l’utilisation de la couleur.
Joost van der Hoeven, commissaire de l’exposition
« Mais il y a aussi une émotivité très brute dans l’œuvre et quand j’ai commencé à en lire davantage sur lui [Wong]I discovered all these strange parallels between their life stories,” he added.
Matthew Wong lived between Canada and Hong Kong throughout his life and began painting eight years before his death, his “last resort”.
“I see myself in him. The impossibility of belonging to this world,” the Chinese-Canadian artist said, according to the museum, about Van Gogh, who committed suicide at the age of 37, tormented by severe mental disorders.
But if the Dutch genius died in poverty, “Wong’s talent was more widely recognized during his short and tumultuous career,” points out the museum.
Around 2017, his fantastic and abundant body of work attracted the attention of art collectors in the United States. The New York Times called him “one of the most talented painters of his generation.”
Matthew Wong killed himself at age 35, “on the cusp of fame,” we read in a New York Times obituary in October 2019.
Melancholy
Mr Wong struggled throughout his life with depression, autism and Tourette’s syndrome “and had difficulty communicating with others”, the Van Gogh Museum said.
On social media, he found a community from which he learned a lot. Besides Van Gogh, Mr. Wong also drew inspiration from a wide range of other painters, including Gustav Klimt, Henri Matisse and contemporary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.
“It’s more than just ‘Oh, here’s Vincent influencing Wong,'” said Emilie Gordenker, director of the Van Gogh Museum.
“Wong was an incredibly talented artist, with a broad palette, a real emotional frankness, a great painter” in his own right, she told AFP.
Wong’s landscapes show the influence of Van Gogh, but the Chinese-Canadian artist “developed his own language,” she noted. In her work, certain references inspire “a feeling of melancholy and sadness,” she added.
We find in many paintings “a small, solitary figure in this overwhelming fantasy world,” observes Mr. van der Hoeven. “These figures are in fact self-portraits.”