The Art of Szeto Keung |
| ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chu-Tsing Li
Among those Chinese painters that I have come to know, Szeto Keung is the one whose personal artistic development is very clear, distinct and meaningful. Every time I visited him, I discovered that his new works were quite different from those that I used to know, in a new stage of his development. During the period of the late 70s and early 80s, many of the Chinese painters living in the Soho area worked in the style of Photographic Realism (also known as New Realism or Super-Realism). But Szeto was quite different from his peers, who usually chose scenes and people of New York City as their subject matters. H.N. Han, C.J. Yao, Hsia Yang, and David Chan all belonged to this group.
However, Szeto was different. He chose as his subjects those little things often found in the artist's studio, such as masking tape, thumb tacks, Masonite boards, and wood pieces. His technique was so refined that he could delineate all the minute details of the depicted objects that appeared to stand out from his canvases or painted wooden boards. Sometimes he would paint some small pieces of paper with some of his own ink paintings among the painted objects. These are what he calls illusions, which, instead of being regular subject matters, were his main concern during that period.
I often asked this question: Why did Szeto Keung not follow the traditional way to search for the expression of something "beautiful", either in the depicted objects or in artistic form, for the new ideas or feeling he was seeking? Instead, what he was searching were illusion. They were found in his canvas or wooden board, on which he put some paint or acrylic to form an abstract surface, usually in grey or dark grey, and depicted some of those little things previously mentioned. All those masking tapes, thumb tacks, match boxes, and some little pieces of painted paper were actually "accidental" ones on his canvases, showing sharp contrasts to the abstract surface in the background. On one side, there was an abstract canvas, and on the other there were some illusions of actual objects attached to the painted surface. This was typical of his early works clone in t he Soho district.
What does he exactly try to express in these paintings? From the titles he gave to his words we can perhaps get some ideas. Sometimes he called them "illusion" and at other times "real or illusionary". These show that he tried to express something real or illusionary, which, in his minute depiction, could sometimes appear so real that they could pass as the real things. Although everything is painted on a flat surface, it gives the tactile feeling something that one can touch it. Thus what Szeto emphasized was the problem of illusion. This approach was somewhat similar to the direction of the art world in Europe and America at that time, namely something of New Realism coming out of the background of Abstract Expressionism. He has written:
A strange contradiction. Perhaps I was working on trompe l'oeil or realism. It appears that way. I know that it was difficult to use trompe l'oeil alone to search for the higher levels of aesthetic expression. Some of my previous works did try to submerge my inner feeling but this is not natural. Now perhaps it is my feeling in middle age. The way I am painting these days seems to go back to my old way, but at a much deeper level. Around 1977, I began to paint in this style, trying to use trompe l'oeil to paint a piece of paper on which I had a painting of my own. Using this as a bridge, I had everything on the canvas, whether good or bad, as my own work. No doubt, I was painting realistically, but I painted something unrealistic realistically. I painted all the minute details as real as possible, showing that I was able to handle and control the realistic approach. But at the same time, I showed that I had my doubts and reservations about the belief in representing reality. To search for the unreal through the real. The more real it is the more unreal it will become. But this "unreal" quality brings back memories and associations.
In the course of his creative development, we can see that be left behind the contrast between abstract and realistic of this early period, and gradually underwent some changes. Since the beginning of the 8Os, his abstract background was replaced by painted Masonite, and on it some wooden strips. Sometimes his Masonite had some uneven, rough edges; sometimes the wooden strips stretched beyond the rectangular frames of the paintings, breaking up their usual form. Later, he painted some organic objects on his painting surface, such as a bunch of grass or reed or a rose, but all dried up or fading. He wrote about this:
Perhaps my work can be said to be decadent or to have the appeal of "sensual beauty" . Both "decadent" and "sensual beauty" are the negative aspects of human life. However, they are the other side of human life, in opposition to the ideas of the true, the good, and the beautiful, in a mutual relationship of cause and effect. To use an imitation of life and death to prove the reality of life and death turns out to be the proof of unreality. The love for the beauty and color of the rose implies the life struggle of everything which cannot stand disintegration and defeat. On the other hand, the "absolute beauty and good" turns out to be the "unreality" on the surface of the painting, capable of bringing only memories and associations, like the flower petals separating from the branches and leaves, leaving behind the brightness of youth.
These notes written by Szeto Keung give us the keys to understanding his paintings. All along he has tried to bring out his inner feeling with contracts, which reflect his own personality. Even though in everyday life he always has a pleasant relationship with people, always has ii ice talks and laughter, he becomes very serious and thoughtful when he is alone, with deep feeling for himself, society, the world and the universe. He hopes to express ail the conflicts in his heart on the surface of his paintings. As a result, he cannot be classified in the many schools of modern painting. He is neither an Abstract Expressionist, nor a New Realist. Although he has sold many of his paintings in the New York market regarded as works of New Realism, the paintings with an emphasis on contrasts are direct expressions of his inner self, not easily understood by other people.
In essence, Szeto Keung is an artist who hopes to express in his paintings the mind of a wanderer aboard. Especially in the Soho district, the old warehouses and new prosperity often lead one to fall in deep thoughts about time and age and profound feeling for the old country and the new land. Especially now that the 21st century is approaching, this feeling has become greatly intensified. Here are some of his notes on this problem:
Identity, to find your place in time and space, you the wanderer abroad. This makes it easy for you to be colored by a feeling of nostalgia (the mood of the end of the century). As a concept of time, "the end of the century" reflects a tragic mood coming from the feeling of the loss of one's most active years and of the approaching end of everything in the world. On the other hand, this concept of "the end of the century" recognizes the cyclical nature of time and shows the anticipation of the arrival of a new age. Both of these concepts have close connections with the Christian interpretation of time. From this comes the idea of a "nostalgia for one's homeland". At the same time, the call of the homeland can be regard as a "cultural myth". This homeland appears close but is actually far away; it seems dear to one's heart but is distant; time changes and things come and go, there is no way to go home. The life of the people in the homeland, whether beautiful or ugly or happy or sad, is actually the resting place of the writers' utopia. Even if the inspiration comes from the Chinese classical history or literature, it still reflects the appeal of exoticism for the strange land. But nostalgia for the ancient past is only a romantic embracing history. The wanderer who returns to his own country for a short visit is like a dragonfly touching the water for a short time but eventually returning to the alien country. He will experience the dislocation of time and space and the worry about his country and the fleeting of time. Is this the expression of a virtuous man who has not got his recognition?
From these notes we can understand the expression in some of his paintings. The grey or gloomy background in his paintings reflects the nostalgic mood of a wanderer. Within these works there can be a small piece of paper showing one of his old ink paintings, or a small photograph, a broken meter stick, a bundle of dry grass, and a faded rose. All these are fragments of his memory. In this grey world and in this short period of time, sometimes he remembers the warm feeling of the past. He senses the fleetingness of time in realizing that he has left his own country, and now living in a strange land, he is lonesome, nostalgic, and feeling totally lost. All the changes in his homeland, especially the Tiananmen Incident, left him alienated and sad. Thus the feeling of being lost is greatly intensified.
It is quite difficult to express this kind of feeling, since he's been in New York, he has seen the works of Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Hard Edge, Photo-Realism, Conceptual art, and many other new trends, but he feels that they are not the roads he should follow. Instead, he wants to explore and find his own way of expression. He adopted Abstract Expressionism as his background, and contrasted it with Photo-Realism. Thus he never took very pretty things as his subjects, never used bright colors, and never painted attractive materials. In this way he expresses his inner self. This method, reflects the true feeling of his own heart and forms a style entirely his own.