Fong Chung-Ray’s work integrates expressionist styles with the colours and forms of oil-based artistic practices. The titles of his works uniformly consist of their year of creation followed by a sequential number. Fong moved away from oil on canvas to focus on ink on paper around 1963, the period during which 66-76 was created. This period was also a high point of his output while a member of the modernist Fifth Moon Society in Taiwan. The work’s unique textures were achieved through Fong’s invention of a brush made of rolled local palm leaves. His new tool was an affirmative break with the calligraphic brushwork of traditional ink practitioners and gives the image a naturalistic feel while keeping it within the realm of abstraction.
The choice to mount the work on a traditional scroll acknowledges its place in ink practice. Fong’s innovative brushwork is specific to the mid-1960s, when artists around the world were engaging with abstraction and exploring the connection to tradition.