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"My work has come to a rhythm where most of the work is done in idle moments when I am at home daydreaming...or going out on walks that have no destination or purpose in mind."
—Matthew WongDepicting a lone figure in a dreamlike field bursting with vegetative life, Field in a Dream, 2014-2017, captures the chromatic and material vibrance of Matthew Wong’s hypnotic landscapes. Defying laws of gravity and space, the landscape of brilliant flora collapses into a singular plane of the mind. Intermixing Western and Eastern art historical influences, Wong developed a unique painterly sensibility that has redefined the genre of landscape and deemed him “one of the most talented painters of his generation.”i Evoking the luscious scenes of Gustav Klimt and the expressionist power of Edvard Munch, the present work epitomizes Wong’s mesmerizing treatment of landscape to poignantly explore the subconscious.
[left] Gustav Klimt, A Field of Poppies, 1907. Oesterreichische Galerie im Belvedere, Vienna, Image: Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY [right] Edvard Munch, Young Woman on the Beach, 1896. Munch Museum, Oslo, Image: Scala / Art Resource, NY, Artwork: © 2021 The Munch Museum / The Munch-Ellingsen Group / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Both in its title and subject matter, the present work embodies the heart of Wong’s practice of using landscape to explore interiority. Investigating these two concepts as a reflection of each other, Wong “worked at the intersection of inner psychology and exterior expression, troubling any simple explanations for the tension between them,” Lauren DiGiulio observed. “He constructed paradoxical spaces that, rendered in landscapes and domestic scenes, go deep into the psyche....[and] Wong’s conjuring of Belle Époque subject matter suitably molded his contemplative study of unexplored regions of the mind.”ii Here, Wong appears to visually address the Symbolist and Expressionist explorations on interior subjectivity and dreaming. As if he plucked Edvard Munch’s solitary young woman into Gustav Klimt’s brimful poppy field, Wong extracted a fusion of influences that he transformed into a singular composition of his own “field of dreams.” In this lyrical mirage, the figure wanders on an indefinite path in a subliminal, horizonless space crafted by the profuse marks of the artist’s painterly touch that express the landscape of his mind.
"I’ll often have quick flashes of imagery appear in and out of my thoughts, they could be shaped or triggered by something I saw or heard out in the world, an artwork I have seen...Going by intuition and my emotions I will then head to the studio and set out to elaborate in paint these vague glimpses I get....simply trusting my instinct and the flow from hand to surface."
—Matthew WongA self-proclaimed “omnivore for sights, sounds, and ideas,” Wong was a sensuous painter.iii “One mark responds to another, colors start piling up, getting scraped away, and built up again, and so on and so forth, and somewhere along the line I always reach a certain point where I can intuitively sense the general shape and structure of the image I need to work towards.”iv Actively channeling his memory and imagination in the process, Wong found that the painterly tropes of landscape-like spaces and subtle archetypical suggestions of figuration were, in his words, “a good starting point for me to establish my visual vocabulary and also have a dialogue with the paintings of the past and present that I admire and learn from looking at.”v As the artist explained, “None of the works are planned in advance, but rather worked out through an intuitive engagement with the pigment and surface. Therefore, my work can be seen as an existential meditation on the act of painting, painting as a marker of time.”vi
Henri Matisse, Landscape at Collioure, 1905. Museum of Modern Art, New York, Image: © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY, Artwork: © 2021 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York "I’d like to think of my art practice as an open-ended dialogue between myself and other painters, both living and dead."
—Matthew WongThroughout his oeuvre, Wong conjured a profound mélange of modernist influences, from Georges Seurat’s Pointillist dabs to Vincent van Gogh’s tactile strokes, from the vivid colors of Fauvism as seen in Henri Matisse's Landscape at Collioure, 1905, to the evocative hues of Symbolism. As Eric Sutphin observed, “Wong can be considered a kind of nouveau Nabi, a descendant of Post-Impressionist painters like Édouard Vuillard and Paul Sérusier. Like his forebears, he synthesizes stylized representations, bright colors, and mystical themes to create rich, evocative scenes. His works, despite their ebullient palette, are frequently tinged with a melancholic yearning.”vii
Vincent van Gogh, Poppy Field, 1890. Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague, Image: HIP / Art Resource, NY Having learned the history and method of painting through social media, the internet, and his frequent trips to the reference section of the Hong Kong Public Library, Wong thoughtfully absorbed a global scope of art history, amalgamating the techniques of his Western predecessors with the technical brilliance and labor-intensive detail of traditional Chinese ceramic and painted work. In the present work, succinct inlaid strokes fill the spaces between van Gogh-esque brushmarks that together recall the scaly dragons and waves rendered by Chinese artisans. The holistic repletion of brilliant specks percolating throughout the canvas contribute to the appearance of a flattened perspective redolent of traditional Chinese landscape painting, which represents depth in stacked planes to conflate time and space. Wong’s employment of this spatial perspective in the case of this work is particularly impactful by embodying the surreal logic of the dream world—at once atemporal, aspatial, and at times vertiginous and fantastical.
Collector’s Digest
• Wong’s works reside in notable public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, Esteé Lauder Collection, New York, Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Aïshti Foundation, Beirut.
• Phillips achieved the artist’s world record last December, when Wong’s River at Dusk achieved over $4,000,000.
River at Dusk, 2018
Achieved $4,871,441 in 2020.i Roberta Smith, “A Final Rhapsody in Blue From Matthew Wong,” The New York Times, December 27, 2019, online.
ii Lauren DiGiulio, “See You on the Other Side: Matthew Wong’s Vistas of the Mind,” Momus, April 1, 2021, online.
iii Matthew Wong, quoted in Maria Vogel, “Matthew Wong Reflects on the Melancholy of Life, Art of Choice, November 15, 2018, online.
iv Matthew Wong, quoted in Valerie Brennan, “Matthew Wong,” Studio Critical, November 4, 2013.
v Ibid.
vi Matthew Wong, quoted in Elaine Wong, “They Are Artists: Matthew Wong,” Altermodernists, October 29, 2014.
vii Eric Sutphin, “Matthew Wong,” Art in America, June 1, 2018, online.Provenance
KARMA, New York
Private Collection, Chicago
KARMA, New York
Acquired from the above by the present ownerArtist Biography
Matthew Wong
Matthew Wong was a Canadian artist who enjoyed growing acclaim for his lush, dreamlike scenes that play on a rich tradition of art historical precedents. His work depicts the vivid but often melancholy terrain between sleep and wakefulness, lonely landscapes and isolated interiors rendered with a carefree hand and an ebullient palette, yet which contain an ineffable sorrow and a palpable but unnamed longing.
Wong spent his childhood between cultures: he was born in Toronto, Canada and at age 7 moved with his family to Hong Kong where he lived until he was 15, at which time the family returned to Canada. Wong began to experiment artistically already well into his adulthood, first with photography, which he pursued at the postgraduate level at the City University of Hong Kong, and then with painting. A self-taught painter, Wong developed his aptitude for the medium by immersing himself in online conversations with other artists and dedicated personal study of the history of art. His paintings attracted almost immediate attention, but Wong tragically passed away in 2019 just as his work was beginning to receive widespread critical praise.
Property from a Prominent European Private Collection
7
Field in a Dream
signed, titled and dated "FIELD IN A DREAM 王 二零一四 — 二零一七" on the reverse
oil on canvas
86 3/4 x 67 in. (220.3 x 170.2 cm)
Painted in 2014-2017.
Estimate
$1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $2,934,000
Amanda Lo Iacono
Head of Auctions
New York
+1 212 940 1278
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York Auction 23 June 2021
1
Cinga Samson
Two piece 1
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $378,000
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2
Jadé Fadojutimi
Untitled
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $390,600
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3
Salman Toor
Fort Greene
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $478,800
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4
Avery Singer
Untitled
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $4,144,000
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5
Matthew Wong
The Reader
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $2,329,000
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6
Winston Churchill
The Moat, Breccles
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,845,000
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7
Matthew Wong
Field in a Dream
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $2,934,000
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8
Jean Dubuffet
L'homme à la toque
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,571,000
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9
Emily Mae Smith
Waiting Room
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $756,000
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10
Nicole Eisenman
Whatever Guy
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $840,700
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11
Norman Lewis
Abstract City
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,119,000
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12
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol
Bananas
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,300,000
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13
David Hockney
A Neat Lawn
Estimate $9,500,000 - 10,500,000
Sold for $11,000,000
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14
Vija Celmins
Untitled (Ocean)
Estimate $5,500,000 - 6,500,000
Sold for $7,748,000
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15
Carmen Herrera
Green and Orange
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,200,000
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16
This lot is no longer available.
17
Brice Marden
Elements III
Estimate $3,200,000 - 3,800,000
Sold for $5,233,000
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18
Amoako Boafo
Untitled
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $655,200
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19
Titus Kaphar
Untitled III
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $1,058,500
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20
Amy Sherald
It Made Sense...Mostly In Her Mind
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $3,539,000
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21
Wayne Thiebaud
Winding River
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $9,809,000
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22
Mark Rothko
Untitled
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $3,700,000
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23
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Batman
Estimate $1,600,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,800,000
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24
Keith Haring
Untitled (For John Sex)
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $899,000
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25
Takashi Murakami
Red Demon and Blue Demon with 48 Arhats
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $6,080,000
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26
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (940-2)
Estimate $4,500,000 - 5,500,000
Sold for $5,112,000
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27
Joan Mitchell
Untitled
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $3,902,000
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28
Willem de Kooning
East Hampton V
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $3,055,000
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29
Amy Sillman
Flower Giver
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $598,500
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30
Alexander Calder
Fourteen Black Leaves
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,300,000
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31
This lot is no longer available.
32
Julie Curtiss
Three Widows
Estimate $110,000 - 150,000
Sold for $466,200
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33
Norman Rockwell
My Mother (Soldier with French Woman)
Estimate $350,000 - 500,000
Sold for $504,000
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34
Richard Prince
Nurses Dormitory #3
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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35
Mickalene Thomas
Portrait of Jessica
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $1,542,500
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36
Andy Warhol
Mao
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $3,000,000
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37
Georg Baselitz
Drei Herzen (Three Hearts)
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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38
Carl Andre
36 Copper Square
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,692,000
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39
Robert Rauschenberg
Untitled (Elemental Sculpture)
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $315,000
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40
Bruce Nauman
Musical Chair
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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41
David Hammons
It’s Not Necessary
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $5,475,000
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42
Andy Warhol
Shadow (Double)
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $877,000
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43
Toyin Ojih Odutola
Quality Control
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $340,200
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44
Robert Colescott
Gift of the Sea
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $504,000
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45
Dana Schutz
Swiss Family Traveling
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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46
Banksy
Love Is In The Air
Estimate $1,000,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,179,500
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47
Keith Haring
Untitled
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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48
Louise Bourgeois
Labyrinthine Tower
Estimate $550,000 - 750,000
Sold for $756,000
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49
Paul McCarthy
White Snow Dwarf (Doc)
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $403,200
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50No Reserve
Jeff Koons
Gazing Ball (Demeter)
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000 •
Sold for $998,000
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