Kaikodo Journal X

Ring of Fire: The Art of Wucius Wong

Corresponding to the exhibition between November 7 and December 5, 1998. 28 paintings by the Hong Kong-based artist Wucius Wong (Wong Wuxie) (28 color plates). Preface by Howard Rogers. Introduction by Michael Sullivan. 77 pages.

Includes the essays:
Wucius Wong:
“A Bi-Directional East-West Journey”
Arnold Chang:
“Entering the Ring: Viewing Wucius Wong’s Art”

Wucius Wong is a real rarity, a painter who is truly bi-culturally literate, an artist whose talent and training have sustained him on a creative journey through two distinct cultures in pursuit of a vision in which the aesthetic values of both are subsumed. In a very eloquent and perceptive essay Wucius Wong identifies the life and artistic experiences which have proved most significant to this development. This account makes clear that Wong has taken art very seriously from his earliest years, that he understood instinctively the liberating power of art, its limitless potential for transforming the lives of creator and audience alike. It was this understanding that led him to found several groups and associations for writers and artists, to organize the first international salon of modernist paintings in Hong Kong, and certainly provided the motive force for the major reorientations that have punctuated his life and professional career. Arnold Chang’s essay shines more light on Wucius and his compelling work.