Lot 142: JIMMY ONG

JIMMY ONG
B. 1964
NELLI'S DREAM
Signed and dated 2001 lower left; titled 'Nelli's Dream' lower middle; signed, titled 'Nelli's Dream' and dated 2001 on the reverse
Charcoal on paper
91.5 by 400.5 cm.; 36 by 157 3/4 in.
S$12000-15000
US$7270-9090

Although Jimmy Ong is known for his powerful, provocative and unconventional nudes, he embarked in a different direction with his 2002 exhibition, Trees in A Garden, which showcased a series of landscape drawings he made as an artist-in-residence at Lunuganga, Sri Lanka, the celebrated garden and villa of the late architect Geoffrey Bawa. Ong made several trips in 1999 and in 2001.
In the show's catalogue, Ong states "It is a difficult garden to depict on paper, nothing I did justified the vistas and 'garden rooms' created by Mr Bawa... The body of works that resulted from this long stay in Sri Lanka is a record of solitude and nostalgia. In rendering the drawings I thought of Rembrandt's and Ni Zan's landscapes, and yet worked in the spirit of doing 'daily practice', giving myself over to the automatic relationship between eye and hand, restraining subjectivity as far as possible. Still some days seemed heavier than others..."
Ong's landscapes are monumental, ravishing and haunting. Although they do not have Ni Zan's cool detachment or Rembrandt's mesmerizing light, his landscapes come alive with the forceful, passionate calligraphy of his charcoal. This exceptionally long drawing is a view of the Boardwalk, the lower garden at Lunuganga by the banks of lake Dedduwa where rice fields coexist with rows of gnarled and twisted trees that possess the same dynamism and musculature of his human figures. The title Nelli's Dream is a reference to Bawa's mother who was the inspiration for the creation of this magnificent garden.
The painting is also a pivotal reference for another important work, Sophie Saw First (2001), which is Ong's interpretation of the famous view of Singapore town and harbour in Sophia Raffles's Memoir of the Life & Public Services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1830). The work was commissioned for the Fullerton Hotel and in composition is clearly connected to Nelli's Dream.
There are few artists who express with such depth and personality the sometimes confusing and contradictory nature of contemporary life in Singapore. In his paintings one sees history, tradition, nature, artifice, and the strange grey area between local and global culture.