Damrong Wong-Uparaj(Thai, 1936-2002)

Red Lines over Black with Small Yellow and Red Squares is a strikingly progressive composition by Thailand's leading abstract painter of the 20th century, Damrong Wong-Uparaj. Known also for his early genre scenes, here Wong-Uparaj subverts the pictorial plane through contrasting a mass of black color over a white underlay, and intersperses a geometric grid of red lines and colored squares over the gestural base. Non-representational, it instead uses a sense of energy to create visual impact. To the artist, energy is derived through various things: the energy of life existence, from religion, from relationships, and this intangible principle is translated visibly on to his canvas.