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Lot Essay
Cheong Soo Pieng is an important artist of the modern Chinese diaspora. He was born in Xiamen, China in 1917, and moved to Singapore in 1947, where he lived and worked until his death in 1983. He created an art that took into account the local people and culture of the Malay world, and established the spirit of engagement so needed then. Working between 1947 and 1983 in Singapore, his paintings had been detailed, sensitive and timely. It stands also as an artist's documentary of the adoption of local space which over time resulted in a culture that was spontaneously syncretic. His works fused Chinese, Malayan and Indonesian in a melded modern artistic vocabulary. The visual language that Soo Pieng employed to convey this was likewise syncretic, an authentic development of East- West art. It was a justifiable outcome of his transposed ambitions to create a new Chinese modernism when he emigrated to Singapore. He successfully developed a plethora of visual expressions from figurative to abstract works in varied media, from oils, to watercolour, Chinese ink and mixed media. His work also establishes the extended boundaries of the Chinese immigrant community through their definition of the Nanyang, and their identities as a people of Southeast Asia.
The well-chosen suite of eight paintings by Cheong Soo Pieng include a finely-detailed oil from 1981, several Chinese ink works in both figurative and abstract compositions, a still life of tropical fruits, and an unusual mixed media abstract painting on textile and jute with gold-leaf. Each work comes as a highly accomplished piece. Together, they form one of the finest selections of works by Cheong Soo Pieng presented at Christie's. The oil painting Durian Seller (Lot 349) is a sensitively detailed work, being beautifully composed and visually-balanced. The humble subject is depicted in local olive and ochre colours, and much texture is drawn from the attap eaves, wood, foliage, and spiny, rotund durian fruit, the bamboo barrel of an opium pipe, and the fantastical batik sarongs of the women. The durian seller himself is enigmatic, his long facial features accentuated by a nick in his hat, he lights his pipe as the women munch. Soo Pieng himself plays a little game, writing the painting title, his signature and date into the stall signage. Much attention may be paid to the features of Chinese-style illustration, and the transparency of the oil paint to simulate Chinese ink painting. However, it is worth noting the emphasis on humanist elements, including a little humour, that makes this a rare and important work by Soo Pieng which reveals the artist's character.
The earlier mixed media abstract painting Vision (Lot 352) is made using a similar muted colour palette but of gold, black and blue. Abstract impressionist in style, the dissection of the canvas breaks it into square spaces. The use of diffused colour, the play on square forms and graphic linework are much in line with developments in abstraction then.
Two earlier works, Sitting (Lot 355) and Still Life – Fruits and Bottle (Lot 356) make an interesting dialogue with the 1961 Chinese ink pieces Untitled (Lot 354) and Kelong Scene (Lot 350). The Still Life piece employs Chinese ink and painting formats with Western composition and perspective. The deceptively simple composition is witty and sophisticated in its staging.
The viewer of this suite is treated to a variety of superior expressions for both figurative and river scenes. The viewer should also mark the exciting shift between Fishing Village (Lot 351), a boldly dramatic construction of lines and planes, and Untitled (Lot 353), the impressionistic, elemental abstract sans subject.
The well-chosen suite of eight paintings by Cheong Soo Pieng include a finely-detailed oil from 1981, several Chinese ink works in both figurative and abstract compositions, a still life of tropical fruits, and an unusual mixed media abstract painting on textile and jute with gold-leaf. Each work comes as a highly accomplished piece. Together, they form one of the finest selections of works by Cheong Soo Pieng presented at Christie's. The oil painting Durian Seller (Lot 349) is a sensitively detailed work, being beautifully composed and visually-balanced. The humble subject is depicted in local olive and ochre colours, and much texture is drawn from the attap eaves, wood, foliage, and spiny, rotund durian fruit, the bamboo barrel of an opium pipe, and the fantastical batik sarongs of the women. The durian seller himself is enigmatic, his long facial features accentuated by a nick in his hat, he lights his pipe as the women munch. Soo Pieng himself plays a little game, writing the painting title, his signature and date into the stall signage. Much attention may be paid to the features of Chinese-style illustration, and the transparency of the oil paint to simulate Chinese ink painting. However, it is worth noting the emphasis on humanist elements, including a little humour, that makes this a rare and important work by Soo Pieng which reveals the artist's character.
The earlier mixed media abstract painting Vision (Lot 352) is made using a similar muted colour palette but of gold, black and blue. Abstract impressionist in style, the dissection of the canvas breaks it into square spaces. The use of diffused colour, the play on square forms and graphic linework are much in line with developments in abstraction then.
Two earlier works, Sitting (Lot 355) and Still Life – Fruits and Bottle (Lot 356) make an interesting dialogue with the 1961 Chinese ink pieces Untitled (Lot 354) and Kelong Scene (Lot 350). The Still Life piece employs Chinese ink and painting formats with Western composition and perspective. The deceptively simple composition is witty and sophisticated in its staging.
The viewer of this suite is treated to a variety of superior expressions for both figurative and river scenes. The viewer should also mark the exciting shift between Fishing Village (Lot 351), a boldly dramatic construction of lines and planes, and Untitled (Lot 353), the impressionistic, elemental abstract sans subject.