작품 상세

A pair of male and female figures — portrayed in Khoo Sui Hoe’s stylistic dreamy manner floating against orange and yellow ochre waters — an oval shape reminiscent of a rock seen at a distance dominates the backdrop. An early piece dated 1981, Two Sleeping Bathers is a highly emotive work imbued with mysterious qualities portraying his profound interest in primitivism — illustrated in a surreal manner. His simplistic rendition of “archaic and primitivistic figurations” is treated with great consciousness. Khoo won many admirers when he boldly and immediately went full time into art in 1961 after completing his studies at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore. In 1974, he was awarded the John D. Rockefeller III Fund grant to study at the Pratt Graphic Centre in New York. Khoo is a rare artist with a Retrospective and two mini-Retrospectives. The Penang State Art Gallery honoured him with a Retrospective, The Painted World Of Khoo Sui Hoe, in 2007. His minis are at The Art Gallery Penang, in 2013, of works from 1967 to 2013; and at Wisma Kebudayaan Soka Gakkai, in August 2017, apart from two other major exhibitions at HELP Institute in 1992 and Datuk Seri Lim’s Bellevue Hotel in Penang Hill in 2000. The Penang Museum Board had in 1978 already given Khoo a solo, of his works from 1963 to 1973. He was also given a two-part An Overview exhibition, the second at the Private Museum, Singapore. Recent Paintings at the prestigious Shanghai Art Museum in July 5-14 adds to his stature. Khoo won Honourable Mention in the prestigious Salon Malaysia in 1969 and also 1st Prize (Oil) in the Malaysian Art & Craft competition in 1965. Khoo is the spiritual leader of the Utara Group, formed in 1977. He was also a gallerist, handling the Alpha Gallery Singapore in 1972, which was revived in Penang in 2004 as the Alpha Utara Gallery.