Reminiscing about the River

Considered one of the most important painters in postwar Hong Kong, Wucius Wong was active in New York’s Chinese American artistic circle in the 1980s and 1990s. Reminiscing about a River is typical of Wong’s style of this period, when he made ink landscapes set within geometric structures. The painting depicts a sprawling mountainous landscape from an aerial view with winding rivers and streams creating depth and movement. Borrowing a concept from Wong’s early career as a graphic designer, the crisscrossing structure that divides each panel into quadrants draws the eye to the painting surface. For Wong, design elements such as this modernize ink painting’s perspectival orientations. Using brushwork and layers of ink wash in various densities, Wong achieves dramatic light contrasts and atmospheric effects that reflect a wide range of art historical influences from Rembrandt’s and Caravaggio’s treatment of light to J. M. W. Turner’s romantic landscape, and Northern Song monumental landscape painting.