작품 상세

There were two important dates in Cheong Soo Pieng's development of his figure types. The first in 1952, when he together with Liu Kang, Chen Wen-hsi and Cheng Chong Swee made the historic visit to Bali, Indonesia, and the other in 1959, when he visited the indigenous tribes people of Sarawak. The visits helped define and refine the figure types that resulted in his seminal version of the Nanyang Style. In Bali, Soo Pieng was much impressed by the Balinese maidens painted by Belgian sojourner Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres. He further refined the forms in his visit to Sarawak, with the romance of the ethnic tribes like the Dayaks. who live off the land and rivers, with primitive tools for hunting and the barest of clothings. The man is usually decked in feathered headgear, but here he is wearing a colour-striped songkok, with the loincloth exposing his back globules. His body is tattoo-ed with motifs said to have protective charms of the spirits. Two half-naked women stand beside him, both carrying small pouch bags with the centre one strapping a baby in a shoulder swathe. A faithful dog is in tow. They are probably waiting for the sampan to cross to the other side of the river. The play of grainy tonal hues gives the image an old antique feel. Cheong Soo Pieng is pivotal in Singapore art history, instrumental in developing the Nanyang Style. After studying Art in Xiamen (1935) and Shanghai (Xinhua, 1936), he migrated to Singapore in 1946 and taught at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts from 1947 until he decided to go full time as an artist in 1961, and thereafter toured Europe for three years. He was accorded a Retrospective by the Singapore National Museum in 1983, but he died of a heart attack that July 1, four months before the exhibition. In January 1967, he was given a retrospective by the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur. In 1962, Singapore awarded him the Meritorious Service Award (Pingat Jasa Gemilang).