By itself, the title, River Of No Return, sounds ominous. But philosophically, it can be taken as a journey of life with all its vicissitudes. Or more likely, love, as in separation. The title is also from a title of an American Western film and the theme song, starring Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum in the lead roles. Marilyn belted the song in a saloon bar, and the famous exclamation, Wail-a-ree, has the same connotation as the Hokkien ‘Walau-eh’, meaning ‘Oh, my Dad!’ Goh Beng Kwan was more inspired by the Mandarin version (which had been sung by Yao Lee (one of the 7 Shanghai Greats), and pioneering Taiwanese chanteuse Yu Ya, and you could well imagine him playing the tune on his harmonica while painting this. The painting is rendered more like musical notes, with a descending zig-zag and a rhythm of strokes sometimes abrupt and sometimes more gentle. Notice, Beng Kwan’s signature, in Chinese, placed strategically at the bottom, as a denouement. The song, as in the painting, can also be taken as a reflection of the passing of time, how fast one’s youth flies past. Goh Beng Kwan is a Singapore art legend, winning the Cultural Medallion in 1989, the 1st Prize of the UOB Painting of the Year in 1982, 1st Prize Australian Business Council and Australian High Commission awards, silver medal in the Salon des Artistes Francais (1985), and the Singapore Tyler Print Institute residency in 2006. His baptism in art was a virtual 10-year personal tutelage by two great Singapore art pioneers Chen Wenhsi and Cheong Soo Pieng, learning Chinese ink and calligraphy. Studies at the Art Students League in New York, under Sidney Gross, changed his course to abstract expressionism, while a Provincetown workshop in Massachusetts put him in touch with collagist Leo Manso. At STPI, he also met paper-maker Richard Hungerford.