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Lot Essay
Singaporean artist Fan Chang Tien was a member of the pioneering generation of migrant artists who went on to shape the landscape and development of art history in Singapore. Having studied under renowned Chinese painter Wu Changshuo, Fan Chang Tien was an exceptionally gifted artist trained in the Shanghai school of painting. He brought this expertise with him when he arrived in Singapore in the early 1950s, and soon found himself surrounded by promising students who deeply admired him for his skill as a painter and for his embodiment of the ideal literati artist being extremely well-versed and also adept at poetry and calligraphy.
It was under the passionate and thorough tutelage of Fan, that notable ink artists of the second generation such as Chua Ek Kay, Tan Oe Pang, and Henri Chen flourished and developed their own distinctive styles of expression. While Fan's legacy has been oft-lauded, the present work, Kampong Scene with Cyclist (Lot 442) offers us an opportunity to consider Fan as a prototypical artist of the early Nanyang Style. With the attap roofs of the distant village and the swaying palm leaves, Fan places us within an unmistakably Southeast Asian setting. Such was the trademark of the Nanyang style that saw the seamless melding of various artistic influences in the service of depicting the essence of the distinctive landscape and peoples of Southeast Asia.
With refreshing simplicity and poignancy, Fan's poetic inscription offers an added dimension of lyricism and nostalgia to the scene. As we follow the cyclist on his journey as he makes his way from the lower left corner towards the village nestled between the tropical palms, Fan presents with a timeless clarity the ceaseless charm of Southeast Asia.
It was under the passionate and thorough tutelage of Fan, that notable ink artists of the second generation such as Chua Ek Kay, Tan Oe Pang, and Henri Chen flourished and developed their own distinctive styles of expression. While Fan's legacy has been oft-lauded, the present work, Kampong Scene with Cyclist (Lot 442) offers us an opportunity to consider Fan as a prototypical artist of the early Nanyang Style. With the attap roofs of the distant village and the swaying palm leaves, Fan places us within an unmistakably Southeast Asian setting. Such was the trademark of the Nanyang style that saw the seamless melding of various artistic influences in the service of depicting the essence of the distinctive landscape and peoples of Southeast Asia.
With refreshing simplicity and poignancy, Fan's poetic inscription offers an added dimension of lyricism and nostalgia to the scene. As we follow the cyclist on his journey as he makes his way from the lower left corner towards the village nestled between the tropical palms, Fan presents with a timeless clarity the ceaseless charm of Southeast Asia.