작품 상세

This portrait of a seated woman, and another of a nun, should dispel any doubt about Yong Mun Sen’s ability to paint figures since most of his figures were summarily dismissed in irregular blotches of colours rather than enunciating the forms properly. The woman with bee-stung lips looks demure and impeccably dolled-up. She is clad in a V-shaped brown baju kurung blouse clasped higher up with a glittering keronsang (brooch) for modesty rather than a vampish plunging neckline. Her keronsang is matched by two bling-bling earrings. Her hair seems tied up with a ribbon at the back. The only flesh visible are her face and neck and hands at the ends of the long sleeves. Mun Sen is a Taipu Hakka born in Sarawak, a fourth-generation Malayan, who had painted in watercolours since 1920. Dubbed the Father of Malaysian Painting by Dato' Dr. Tan Chee Khuan, the pioneer chronicler of art pioneers in Malaysia, Mun Sen was accorded post-humous Memorial exhibitions in Singapore and Gallery 11 in Kuala Lumpur, both in 1966; followed by two in 1972 by the National Art Gallery and the Penang State Art Gallery (PSAG). The PSAG gave him a full-blown retrospective in 1999. Mun Sen was also active in art promotion, being a co-founder of the Penang Chinese Art Club in 1936 (president, 1937), the Penang Art Society (1953) and the Singapore Society of Chinese Artists (vice-president, 1936). His overseas solos included London (Malayan Pavilion, British Industrial Fair, 1948), Tasmania (Australia), Singapore and Cleveland (United States). He set up the Tai Koon Studio in Penang 1922 (renamed Mun Sen Studio in 1930, with a branch in Northam Road the next year).