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Louise (A Portrait of Professor Louise Wilson OBE)
Collection:CSM Museum & Study Collection
Date: 2002-2013
Artist: Cary Kwok
Dimensions:
Mount: 500 × 430 mm (50 × 43 cm)
Medium: Oil, acrylic, ink, pencil and palladium leaf on canvas
Object number: F.2025.42.CC
DescriptionA portrait of Louise Wilson, painted by and originally gifted to her by her former CSM MA Fashion student, Cary Kwok.
Desription by the artist:
"I started painting this portrait of Louise Wilson in 2002, just one year after I graduated from the CSM MA Fashion course. Every time I went to visit Louise in college, she would ask if I had finished her portrait because I had only painted her face. She seemed to like it and commented that I had made her look better, but had also managed to capture her “mean mouth”. After that, I forgot about the painting and put it aside for many years.
During the Christmas holiday in 2013, I suddenly felt the urge to finish the painting. I finally completed it and took it to the new CSM campus to give to Louise as a surprise in January 2014. I was relieved that she loved it. I decided to leave her clothes and the background white, giving it an “unfinished” look, which she said made her look as if she were in heaven. As soon as she said that, I felt my heart sank. She then explained that she always wore white linen when she was in Bali. I replied, “Then this is you in Bali,” hoping what I said would dispel the strange, sunken feeling I had. A few months later, I heard the sad news that Louise had died. I am glad that I managed to finish the painting, so she could enjoy it before her death, even if only for a few months.
In 2017, a friend sent me an Instagram post from an auction house, featuring some of Louise’s fashion accessories, along with the portrait I had painted. Seeing the painting again in those circumstances was rather surreal. I learned that her family was auctioning off her belongings, so I quickly contacted the auction house and bought the portrait back. The painting had been remounted in a very odd way. It was originally square, but the canvas had been re-stretched onto a rectangular frame by someone who had botched the job. Louise wasn’t even centred. I took it to a framer to have it re-stretched and properly framed. The previous stretching had left visible fold marks on the canvas, but those marks, accidentally and in a strangely beautiful way, became part of the work.
Whether or not people agreed with Louise’s unapologetic way of teaching, and although our teacher–student relationship had its ups and downs, she was always a constructive critic. She never left you wondering why she liked or didn’t like something, which to me was the best way for a student like myself to learn. I learned a great deal from her and from the MA course, and I still apply these lessons to navigate life's challenges.
Desription by the artist:
"I started painting this portrait of Louise Wilson in 2002, just one year after I graduated from the CSM MA Fashion course. Every time I went to visit Louise in college, she would ask if I had finished her portrait because I had only painted her face. She seemed to like it and commented that I had made her look better, but had also managed to capture her “mean mouth”. After that, I forgot about the painting and put it aside for many years.
During the Christmas holiday in 2013, I suddenly felt the urge to finish the painting. I finally completed it and took it to the new CSM campus to give to Louise as a surprise in January 2014. I was relieved that she loved it. I decided to leave her clothes and the background white, giving it an “unfinished” look, which she said made her look as if she were in heaven. As soon as she said that, I felt my heart sank. She then explained that she always wore white linen when she was in Bali. I replied, “Then this is you in Bali,” hoping what I said would dispel the strange, sunken feeling I had. A few months later, I heard the sad news that Louise had died. I am glad that I managed to finish the painting, so she could enjoy it before her death, even if only for a few months.
In 2017, a friend sent me an Instagram post from an auction house, featuring some of Louise’s fashion accessories, along with the portrait I had painted. Seeing the painting again in those circumstances was rather surreal. I learned that her family was auctioning off her belongings, so I quickly contacted the auction house and bought the portrait back. The painting had been remounted in a very odd way. It was originally square, but the canvas had been re-stretched onto a rectangular frame by someone who had botched the job. Louise wasn’t even centred. I took it to a framer to have it re-stretched and properly framed. The previous stretching had left visible fold marks on the canvas, but those marks, accidentally and in a strangely beautiful way, became part of the work.
Whether or not people agreed with Louise’s unapologetic way of teaching, and although our teacher–student relationship had its ups and downs, she was always a constructive critic. She never left you wondering why she liked or didn’t like something, which to me was the best way for a student like myself to learn. I learned a great deal from her and from the MA course, and I still apply these lessons to navigate life's challenges.