One of the most prominent names in the Singapore art scene, Cheong Soo Pieng is best known for contributing towards what is known as the "Nanyang style" of art. Born in China, and trained in art in Xiamen and Shanghai, Cheong Soo Pieng came to Singapore in 1946 at the age of 29. He taught at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Art from 1947 to 1961, influencing an entire generation of artists who received their art education at the academy. Under the tutelage of the founder of the Academy, Lim Hak Tai, Cheong developed a unique visual aesthetic. His works are typically a harmonious blend of the traditional and contemporary: Western pictorial conventions with Chinese ink painting. He infused cultural elements from the places he visited - combining Asian styles and motifs with Parisian schools of art, for example - creating styles that were uniquely his own, and as much a melting pot of influences as the country he called home.

Every artist has a muse. For Cheong, it was the places he visited and people he met. Throughout his lifetime, the artist took many working trips around the region to observe and sketch the people of the indigenous tribes. The most well-known of these trips was the 1952 five-month field trip to Bali that he took with three other Singaporean artists - Chen Chong Swee, Liu Kang, and Chen Wen Hsi. The trip culminated in an exhibition titled Four Artist to Bali, which showcased the newly developed Nanyang style of painting, and each other the four artists' own interpretation of that style. This present year, 2012, marks the 60th anniversary of this Bali trip which was crucial to the development of Singapore art; without this trip the landscape of Singapore painting might look very different today.

Painted just two years after the Bali visit, At the Fishing Village (Lot 2195) typifies the development of his style post-trip. The Western influences are clear in the cubist nature with which he depicts the village scene of a boat jetty, the boats made up of clear, geometric forms. Boats are distinguished from one another through the use of contrasting block colours and the graphic black lines that outline the shapes to clearly represent the boats by the shore. Void of unnecessary detail, the scene has barely any people, yet the evidence of his brush strokes on the layers of paint and the thickness of the line inspire the everyday scene to vibrate with a sort of pulsating energy.

Developing on a similar motif, Cheong painted Kelong Sunset (Lot 2196) in the same year he was exhibiting his works at group exhibitions across Europe. As he drew inspiration from his environment, the abstract presentation of the kelong utilises sinewy black lines to hint at the mountains and houses amidst the warmth of a canvas dominated by orange and red, colours associated with a sunset. It is an example of Cheong's remarkable ability to render and elevate the everyday and commonplace, emphasising the atmospheric effect of the work. It is only upon closer examination that the elements of the seascape are revealed through the foggy haze, making the image enigmatic and mysterious.

Following his final trip to the Dayak longhouses of Borneo in 1959, he formulated his distinctive style of painting the women from the indigenious tribes of Indonesia. Both Kayan Ladies (Lot 2193) and Dayak Girl (Lot 2194) are exemplary of the stylistic maturity and perfection he achieved with his archetypal figures over the years. With their slender, elongated bodies and limbs, wide eyes and delicate features, the women of the tribes are gentle and alluring. The earthy tones used in both works are significant of their relationship with nature as they do not dominate their surroundings, but blend in harmoniously to the backdrop.

Illustrating the progress in his career with works from different stages of his life, the present lots showcase the breadth and complexity of this Nanyang artist's extensive oeuvre.