Nature's Expression

One of the criticisms sometimes leveled, quite unjustly against modern Oriental art is that it is not Oriental. Why, it is asked, do Chinese artists paint in oils instead of their own fluid and sensitive medium? The answer is that no art that is alive can stand still, it must be a direct expression of the times. As Asian civilisations have been re-born in the last half-century, so must Asian artists reflect, and inspire this rebirth. New things must be said, and a new pictorial language found in which to say them. If the work of Cheong Soo Pieng sometimes look more Western than Oriental, more modern than traditional, that is because it is a true reflection of the feelings and aspirations of the community to which he belongsKCheong Soo Pieng's strength is that while deeply influenced by Western art, he is no mere imitator. He has carved out for himself a remarkably consistent style. Professor Michael Sullivan, foreword to Cheong Soo Pieng's solo exhibition at Redfern Gallery, London, 1963
CROSSING EAST AND WEST
Cheong Soo Pieng's artistic development is a remarkable cohesion of Eastern and Western sensibilities; a progressive vanguard of abstract experimentation and narrative figuration combined with a keen awareness of the rapid pace of aesthetic modernity within 20th century painting. Born in 1917, Xiamen, China, Cheong Soo Pieng studied Chinese ink painting in the Xiamen Academy of Fine Arts, and later combined this with Western concepts in the Xin Hua Academy of Fine Arts in Shanghai. By the time he migrated to Singapore in 1946, he had a solid grasp of Chinese ink and Western oil painting history, techniques, pictorial formats. This was coupled with the unique ability to reinterpret the local subject matter of this new environment - an early foreshadowing of what was to later become the acclaimed 'Nanyang' style of Cheong, and his artistic compatriots, Liu Kang, Chen Wen Hsi and Chen Chong Swee.
In 1963, the renowned Redfern Gallery at Cork Street, London organised two exhibitions by two up and coming Asian-Chinese artists. Cheong Soo Pieng's exhibition at the Redfern Gallery was from 23 April to May 17 while Zao Wou-Ki's exhibition stretched from 29 October to 29 November in the same year. For Cheong Soo Pieng, the Redfern solo exhibition was the culmination of a successful European tour; which had commenced with the Bond Street Galleries of Fost & Reed in London in March 1962 and a second exhibition at Galerie Schoninger, Munich, in November 1962. The works produced and displayed throughout Cheong's Europe trip reflected a similar aesthetic: masterful abstract landscapes of bold vermillion, crimson or yellow backgrounds, and dense painterly intersections of black, blue and red, rendered with calligraphic intensity. Cheong showed a distinct preference for the intersection of earth and sky, with a rising or setting sun clearly in evidence - the insignia of cyclical birth and life.
Nature's Expression is an outstanding rendition of Cheong's European abstract landscapes. It reveals his characteristic elements of a strong base colour juxtaposed against forceful brushstrokes delineating the land formations, horizon, and sun. The canvas size is unusually large, making Nature's Expression possibly the largest single-panel format within Cheong's abstract oeuvre. Other examples from the same period created in larger size are usually presented within diptych or triptych formats. This could be due to the fact that as Cheong painted while travelling, anticipating his exhibitions in trans-European locations, he therefore typically required canvases to be of a manageable, portable size. However, the dimension of Nature's Expression indicates Cheong executed it during a certain interval where he was located continuously in one place and in proximity to the exhibiting gallery - therefore most likely in London, given the 1963 dating of the artwork. A RHYTHM OF ENERGY
The achievement of Nature's Expression lies not only in its scale, but in the marked dynamism of the gradients of black and crimson against the muted tangerine orange background, and the swift energy of Cheong's brushstrokes. Sixth-century Chinese art historian and theorist Xie He declared the foundation of ink painting lay within the "Six Principles" (liufa) - of which the key principle was "spiritual resonance and lifelike vitality" (qiyun shengdong). Therein lies the essence of the artwork: the merging between creator and creation, the transference of the painter's own life energy to the movement of the brush and ink. A good painter could demonstrate refined control and virtuosic finesse in depicting structure and movement; an excellent painter imbued each gesture with the pace of his breathing and the rhythm of his heartbeat.
Within Nature's Expression, Cheong first layers crimson and cobalt pigment on to the orange base. Across the horizontal plane, he forms the topmost layer with thick swathes of black paint which nearly effaces the areas of blue. The movement of the brush is clearly visible, every turn and pause by Cheong finding its place upon the canvas. Sweeping lines are truncated by spontaneous paint blots. The raw dynamism of the entire composition and gestural movement of the calligraphic strokes reveal precisely this transference of life energy and vitality of the painter to the canvas. Within the aspiration to portray the grandeur of nature in its most primeval form, Cheong Soo Pieng has infused Nature's Expression with both expressionistic fervor and pulsating life.