작품 상세

The Mother-and-Child theme is perhaps one of the most endearing and poignant of Dato’ Chuah Thean Teng’s oeuvre. It resounds with his own experience of one’s mother’s love, warmth and care. Executed in Teng’s iconic style, the work shows a heart-warming scene of a voluptuous mother embracing her young children. The lady is adorned with a traditional sarong, and the artist’s meticulous treatment of colour gives the work a soft and calming quality. The maternal figure is a pillar of strength, providing support and care to her loved ones. Surrounding the work are cubist inspired forms and lines, displaying Teng’s experimental approach to batik painting. Dato’ Chuah Thean Teng, world acknowledged as the originator of Batik Painting, never stopped innovating since he developed the art in 1953. In Chinese Art In The 20th Century (1959), Professor Michael Sullivan wrote: “In Teng, Malaya claims to have found her first national painter. Teng has conceived the idea of making pictures in batik — not just decorative designs, but large and frequently complex figure compositions.” He was the first Malaysian (after British-born Peter Harris) to be given a Retrospective in 1965 by the National Art Gallery (the NAG again accorded him a Tribute exhibition in 2008), while Penang accorded him a Retrospective in 1994. In 1998, he was conferred a Dato’ship and in 2005, Penang’s ‘Living Heritage Award’. Images of his works, Two Of A Kind (1968) and Tell You A Secret (1987) were chosen for UNICEF’s greeting cards. He was the only Malaysian in a roll of great world artists invited to take part in the Commonwealth Artists of Fame exhibition in London, to mark the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1977.