1. Matthew Wong - Vincent Van Gogh. Painting as a Last Resort. Instalation view Kunsthaus Zurich, 2024. Photos: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zurich, Works M. Wong : 2024, ProLitteris, Zurich
A dialogue across time, creativity and isolation
From the 20th of September 2024 until the 26th of January 2025, the Kunsthaus Zurich hosts an exhibition exploring the artistic and emotional parallels between Matthew Wong (1984–2019) and Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890).
This exhibition is a profound meditation on creativity as a response to inner turmoil, bringing together luminous landscapes and interiors by Wong and a selection of van Gogh’s masterpieces, lent by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Curated collaboratively by Jonas Beyer and Philippe Büttner in Zurich, the exhibition reflects the universal yet deeply personal resonance of art created in solitude.
Wong once remarked of van Gogh: “I see myself in him. The impossibility of belonging in this world.” These words encapsulate the common ground the exhibition traverses, where the two artists shared struggles with mental health.
The exhibition invites us to consider: can painting serve as a true remedy for isolation and despair? Or is its beauty and brilliance an extension of suffering’s intensity?
The life and art of Matthew Wong
2. Matthew Wong, See You On the Other Side, 2019, Oil on canvas, 152,4 x 121,9 cm, Matthew Wong Foundation, © 2024, ProLitteris, Zurich
Matthew Wong’s brief yet prolific artistic journey defies conventional narratives. Born in Toronto, Canada, to Chinese parents, Wong spent much of his life moving between Toronto and Hong Kong. Diagnosed with autism and Tourette’s syndrome, he struggled with depression from a young age. Despite his challenges, Wong was driven by a curiosity and a yearning to contribute to art’s “greater dialogue” over time. Remarkably, he was self-taught, beginning his artistic journey with ink drawings at 27 and transitioning to painting only a few years before his untimely death at 35.
Wong’s landscapes are vivid, deeply textured, and often introspective. Infused with influences ranging from Matisse to Alex Katz, they feel at once timeless and modern. His ability to synthesize elements from Euro-American and Chinese traditions reflects his global perspective, yet his works remain deeply personal, spaces of solitude imbued with emotional resonance. For Wong, painting was both an escape from the pain of existence and a way of engaging with it. His works capture the fragile balance between beauty and anguish, inviting viewers into his intensely personal cosmos.
A share vision
The parallels between Wong and van Gogh extend far beyond their shared struggles with mental health. Both artists used painting as a form of self-preservation/ Van Gogh’s intense brushwork and vivid colors transformed everyday scenes into emotional landscapes, while Wong’s paintings, with their luminous palettes and rhythmic compositions, evoke similar depths of feeling.
However, their affinities go deeper still. Wong’s quote about van Gogh “The impossibility of belonging in this world”, echoes the Dutch artist’s lifelong battle with alienation and longing. Both artists viewed nature as a conduit for their emotional states, creating works where the external landscape mirrors the inner psyche.
Van Gogh’s turbulent skies and wheat fields, for example, find a modern counterpart in Wong’s lush forests and abstracted vistas. In their art, we see a meeting of the tangible and the transcendent, the physical and the emotional.
Yet, despite their achievements, both men’s lives ended in tragedy. Van Gogh took his own life at 37, and Wong at 35. Their deaths challenge us to reflect on the relationship between suffering and creativity: can art truly alleviate despair, or does it merely amplify it? This question haunts the exhibition, forcing us to confront our assumptions about genius and its cost.
Curatorial vision
3. Matthew Wong - Vincent Van Gogh. Painting as a Last Resort. Instalation view Kunsthaus Zurich, 2024. Photos: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zurich, Works M. Wong : 2024, ProLitteris, Zurich
Rather than forcing direct comparisons, the exhibition places Wong and van Gogh’s works in dialogue through arranged sightlines and spatial relationships. Wong’s expansive canvases, filled with vibrant colors and dreamlike compositions, dominate the gallery, while van Gogh’s smaller, more intimate works punctuate the space. Openings in partition walls allow viewers to see the two artists works in relation to each other without diminishing their individuality.
This spatial arrangement underscores the exhibition’s central thesis: while Wong and van Gogh grappled with similar themes, their approaches remain distinct. Van Gogh’s thick, impastoed brushstrokes convey a sense of urgency, as if he were racing against time, while Wong’s smoother, more deliberate surfaces suggest contemplation and introspection. Yet both artists imbue their landscapes with emotion, transforming them into extensions of their inner worlds.
The exhibition’s structure also highlights the influence of art history on Wong’s work. In addition to van Gogh, Wong drew inspiration from figures as diverse as Gustav Klimt and Yayoi Kusama, blending their techniques into a unique visual language. This blending of influences is a hallmark of Wong’s approach, reflecting the interconnectedness of 21st-century art in an age of digital access.
The emotional cosmos
Both Wong and van Gogh saw painting as more than an artistic practice; for them, it was a lifeline. Van Gogh famously wrote to his brother Theo, “I put my heart and soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.” Wong, too, poured his emotions into his art, creating works that resonate with a raw, unfiltered immediacy.
Yet their art also reveals the limitations of this “last resort.” While painting offered a temporary reprieve, it could not ultimately save either artist from their struggles. This paradox that art is both a sanctuary and a battleground lies at the heart of the exhibition. Viewers are invited to consider their own relationship with art: is it a source of solace, a means of understanding, or something more elusive?
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Kunsthaus Zürich
Date: 20.9.2024 – 26.01.2025
Curators: Joost van der Hoeven, Jonas Beyer and Philippe Büttner
Ticket: Available on the website of the Kunsthaus Zürich OR at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Kunsthaus Zürich
Kunsthaus Zürich
Heimplatz
CH-8001 Zürich
Phone: +41 44 253 84 84
Mail: info@kunsthaus.ch