작품 상세

The mother-and-child theme is an endearing fodder for artists dating back as early as Raphael's time in the 15th to 16th century. The hallowed list includes Gustav Klimt, Claude Monet, Mary Cassatt, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and our own batik-art pioneer Dato' Chuah Thean Teng, done often with impish humour. Teng, as the artist is more popularly known, uses an unusual long vertical format, revealing how big the child has grown, standing still on the hand palm of the mother, blessed with lots of love and affection from the mother. Teng is acknowledged as the originator of Batik Painting (Chinese Art In The 20th Century, 1959, by Professor Michael Sullivan), after he unveiled the art-form in 1953. The National Art Gallery accorded him a Retrospective in 1965, and a Tribute exhibition in 2008. He was also given a retrospective by the Penang State Art Gallery in 1994. He was bestowed the Dato' title in 1998, and the Penang's Live Heritage Award in 2005. He was the sole Malaysian among the world's great artists invited for the Commonwealth Artists of Fame exhibition in London in 1977, to mark the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. He cut short his tutelage at the Xiamen (Amoy) Art Institute in China when his family moved to Penang in 1926. He set up the Yahong Art Gallery, first in Leith Street, before it moved to a bigger space in Batu Ferringhi.