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Lot Essay
"He has carved out for himself a remarkably consistent style, so that on entering a room one can pick out a Soo Pieng at once, by its combination of a fine sense of design, firm, angular forms, and a colour-scheme that is never less than bold and is often arresting. His preoccupation with design leaves nothing to chance. Line, form and colour are bent to the creation of a wholly satisfying composition, as fully integrated as a piece of architecture. At the same time, he has not removed himself into a world of pure abstraction; like other leading artists in Singapore, he derives his theme directly from the life around him."
-MICHAEL SULLIVAN
A master of both Eastern and Western artistic techniques, Cheong Soo Pieng's lasting legacy as a Singapore pioneer artist takes many forms. The selection of paintings presented here is testimony of the wide range of stylistic variations he adopted at different stages of his practice, highlighting the versatility of this revered modern master.
Born in China, Cheong's was enamoured by the people and places of the Southeast Asian region, marvelling at the way the tropical sun produced a unique quality of light that bathed the landscape and its inhabitants. In Balinese Girls (Lot 472), Cheong employs fine, controlled lines of ink, combined with the gentle washes of colour to form the figures of each bathing nude in the scene. The painting is typical of the works from Cheong's early career, with his use of a familiar, traditional medium in his depiction of an unusual, localized scene. Cheong maintains an adherence to reality, with his realistically proportioned bodies of the women, and their gentle, sloping curves.
Painted in 1951, Beach Landscape (Lot 474) displays Cheong's innate innovative streak, as he begins to adopt oil paint as the primary medium of his practice. Here, Cheong releases his grasp on the form of things and focuses on the colours he chooses to construct his scene. In broad, sweeping strokes of the brushes, an argentine sky hints at an impending storm, hovering just beyond the horizon. While the grey waters of the foreground reflect the gloomy skies, a section of baby blue in the distance disrupts our perception of a dark day. Cheong suggests boats and bridges with simple outlines, even attempting a removal of paint in the line work on the structures out at sea that appears similar to his favoured wax-drawn batik prints.
Balinese Girl (Lot 471) is exceptionally important as a work produced in 1952, the same year as Cheong's landmark trip to Bali that would greatly affect the course of his artistic career. Unlike the elongated female archetypes of his later years, the girl is distinguishable from the other faces painted during the period. Suggesting soft and supple flesh of a young woman, the swell of her breasts is made more pronounced by the strong, unbroken flow of Cheong's brush.
Painted in 1977, Abstract (Lot 475) is an example of Cheong's experimentations with the language of abstraction, following his long sojourn to England and Europe in the early 1960s. The irregular sizes of Cheong's squares evoke an organic feel despite the order and rigidity their contained configuration suggests. Maintaining the motif of the sun with the glowing golden orb at the top of the work, Cheong provides a focal point for our reading of the composition.
Lady (Lot 473) prefigures the iconic stylization that would come in the later years of his career, with her elegant elongated body and slender limbs. With a dry brush, Cheong produces the effect of charcoal rubbed along the edges of her outline, gently building the three-dimensionality of the otherwise flat figures of the girl and the birds.
By the late 1970s, Cheong was approaching the peak of his artistic career, as he consolidated decades of experimentation with the female form into his iconic female figure. Standing amidst the wheat field, the farmer and her fellow neighbours almost blend into their environment, explicitly becoming one with nature. Bearing a serene expression on her delicately drawn face, the central figure in Harvesting (Lot 470) is exemplary of the most recognizable motif in Cheong's career.
-MICHAEL SULLIVAN
A master of both Eastern and Western artistic techniques, Cheong Soo Pieng's lasting legacy as a Singapore pioneer artist takes many forms. The selection of paintings presented here is testimony of the wide range of stylistic variations he adopted at different stages of his practice, highlighting the versatility of this revered modern master.
Born in China, Cheong's was enamoured by the people and places of the Southeast Asian region, marvelling at the way the tropical sun produced a unique quality of light that bathed the landscape and its inhabitants. In Balinese Girls (Lot 472), Cheong employs fine, controlled lines of ink, combined with the gentle washes of colour to form the figures of each bathing nude in the scene. The painting is typical of the works from Cheong's early career, with his use of a familiar, traditional medium in his depiction of an unusual, localized scene. Cheong maintains an adherence to reality, with his realistically proportioned bodies of the women, and their gentle, sloping curves.
Painted in 1951, Beach Landscape (Lot 474) displays Cheong's innate innovative streak, as he begins to adopt oil paint as the primary medium of his practice. Here, Cheong releases his grasp on the form of things and focuses on the colours he chooses to construct his scene. In broad, sweeping strokes of the brushes, an argentine sky hints at an impending storm, hovering just beyond the horizon. While the grey waters of the foreground reflect the gloomy skies, a section of baby blue in the distance disrupts our perception of a dark day. Cheong suggests boats and bridges with simple outlines, even attempting a removal of paint in the line work on the structures out at sea that appears similar to his favoured wax-drawn batik prints.
Balinese Girl (Lot 471) is exceptionally important as a work produced in 1952, the same year as Cheong's landmark trip to Bali that would greatly affect the course of his artistic career. Unlike the elongated female archetypes of his later years, the girl is distinguishable from the other faces painted during the period. Suggesting soft and supple flesh of a young woman, the swell of her breasts is made more pronounced by the strong, unbroken flow of Cheong's brush.
Painted in 1977, Abstract (Lot 475) is an example of Cheong's experimentations with the language of abstraction, following his long sojourn to England and Europe in the early 1960s. The irregular sizes of Cheong's squares evoke an organic feel despite the order and rigidity their contained configuration suggests. Maintaining the motif of the sun with the glowing golden orb at the top of the work, Cheong provides a focal point for our reading of the composition.
Lady (Lot 473) prefigures the iconic stylization that would come in the later years of his career, with her elegant elongated body and slender limbs. With a dry brush, Cheong produces the effect of charcoal rubbed along the edges of her outline, gently building the three-dimensionality of the otherwise flat figures of the girl and the birds.
By the late 1970s, Cheong was approaching the peak of his artistic career, as he consolidated decades of experimentation with the female form into his iconic female figure. Standing amidst the wheat field, the farmer and her fellow neighbours almost blend into their environment, explicitly becoming one with nature. Bearing a serene expression on her delicately drawn face, the central figure in Harvesting (Lot 470) is exemplary of the most recognizable motif in Cheong's career.