China-born, Taiwan-educated, and New York-based, SZETO Keung was a rare artist who utilized both realism and abstract techniques to present his artistic concept in Chinese classical literature. His subtle and poetic blend of the East and the West opened his work to rich discussions.
Read MoreSZETO had a solid background in Lingnan school painting, which he later combined with abstract expressionism and juxtaposed with photorealism for his unique undertaking, such as works depicting small items pinned to a backboard with tapes and paper strips trailing across it on a very shallow space, creating an illusionary and abstract effect. By contrasting materials and representation, he offered us an alternative presentation of the subject, ‘It’s like telling the same story over and over, but slightly differently every time.’
Hope, a consistent subject in SZETO’s paintings, was often symbolized as a rose, feather, or butterfly. Rose, the most depicted subject in his work, was, on the one hand, the metaphor of the unreachable, unfulfilled goal of life while on the other hand, homeland, love, youth, and ideal. SZETO once noted ‘every rose is a love letter that cannot be delivered in life,’ referring to the flower as emotionally delicate that always carries a tint of sadness.
In the 90’s, SZETO had incorporated photorealism, abstract expressionism and even minimalism to create his unique romantic style. By applying multimedia, the painter built a multimedia stage of dreams, where the drama of cross-cultural negotiations and cultural rootedness took place. Among the painters who tried to capture the wisdom of Eastern philosophy in Western oil paintings, SZETO was the only one who successfully conveyed both emotional impact and visualization of Chinese literary concept, marking him one of the influential figures in Taiwanese art history.
Text courtesy Eslite Gallery.
