Matthew ... found and lost.

I had a strange experience today and I want to share it with you. For some reason I thought it would be fun to look at the new crop of young and talented painters and choose one whose career I would enjoy following. I wanted to go by their work alone and not be swayed by their bio or what others thought so I made my choice strictly by looking at “paintings by up and coming artists”.

As soon as I stumbled upon the work of Matthew Wong I knew I had found my artist. Here are the 2 paintings that clinched it for me … 

Now of course I started my research and was not surprised to read that he was already well known, although new to me. Also, a few critics wrote of his paintings as being tinged with “melancholic yearning”. I had felt something along those lines too as I studied his work but was shocked to find that this proved to be prophetic. 

On Oct. 2, 2019 Matthew died by his own hand. He had Tourettes syndrome and had grappled with depression since childhood. I am so sad that he is gone but will watch with admiration as his name becomes known worldwide. Just this past October his painting “Shangri La” sold at Christies for a record $4.5 million. 

This is Matthews "Winter Nocturne", 2017.  I love to imagine that he and Vincent might right now be sitting 'neath a starry, starry night and discussing their similar techniques.