Wesley Tongson (1957-2012) was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 15 and he began studying traditional Chinese painting two years later. Art was Tongson's life and he thrived in his creative pursuits. In the early 1970s, he studied traditional Chinese painting styles and themes in Hong Kong. From 1977 to 1981, Tongson studied at the Ontario College of Art in Canada, where he learned Western painting and began experimenting with splash ink, influenced by renowned artists Pablo Picasso, Zhang Daqian and Jackson Pollock. Tongson returned to Hong Kong in 1981 and continued his experimentation with non-brush ink application techniques into the 1990s. He learned ink staining, rubbing, dyeing and marbling. In 2001, Tongson began to experiment with finger painting. Starting 2009, Tongson was working primarily with his fingers, hands and nails to create his emotionally communicative, monumental spiritual landscape paintings.
Read MoreZen philosophy was very important to Wesley Tongson (1957-2012), he believed that in order to create a good piece of painting, one must transcend yourself first. Tongson's interest in Zen started when he did the splash ink paintings inspired by Zhang Daqian. In the 1990s, Tongson explored non-brush techniques to eliminate the "distance" between him and his works. In 2001, Tongson began to experiment with finger painting and since then his painting inscriptions explicitly record the use of his fingers instead of a brush. During this transition, Tongson also shifted from color ink to black ink, and then at the end of his life, Tongson added colors back to his finger paintings. By 2009, Tongson had stopped using brush and painted completely with his hands, fingers and nails, where he reached liberation by pouring his bold and raw emotions directly on the paper. These works represent Tongson's path to enlightenment.
Text courtesy Galerie du Monde.
