작품 상세

Tew Nai Tong was a pied piper of nostalgia especially pertaining to the Nanyang 'Southern Seas' milieu and epoch. His works celebrate the joie de vivre and beauty of land, usually natural kampung, and people, of a bygone era with pastimes like kite-flying, top-spinning, bird-rearing and cockerel-rearing. The people are predominantly rubber tappers and herders of gaily-coloured cows with short horns and hump Minangkabau-roofed backs. The women are graceful and rustically feminine, shown with phoenix eyes and bee-stung lips, and long oval faces in flat tones. His self image often morphs into the women's faces. Nai Tong's career path was strewn with timely mentors, from Sekolah Menengah Peng Hwa in his Klang hometown (He Yue Cher), to the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, then at 49 St. Thomas Walk (Koh Chien Tee and Chen Wen-Hsi, 1957-1958, did not complete and he did not study under Cheong Soo Pieng) and the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris (William Sham and Tong Tjoe). On his return from Paris, he taught at the Malaysian Institute of Art (1969-1980), the Central Academy of Art (1982-1985) and the Saito Art Academy (1986-1988) before opting to go fulltime in 1992. He also co-founded the Malaysian Watercolour Society and the Malaysian Contemporary Watercolours Association and also the now-defunct Le Beaux Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur. A revisit to Paris from February to April 1999, after a hiatus of 31 years, resulted in a stunning repertoire of works - provocative nudes, elegiac autumn scenes, quaint sidewalks and ponts. He revisited again until 2002. Tew Nai Tong had a major Survey exhibition called Odyssey at the National Art Gallery Malaysia in 2007, and it was around this time that he painted large paintings, of his Festival Series, including Bali, measuring from 148cm x 119cm to 150cm x 365.7cm.