작품 상세

Perhaps few places else do you find Dato' Chuah Thean Teng in his element than in this 1980 batik Rural Life. Highly inventive and stylised, Teng, as the batik-art progenitor is known, the neat composition is an architectural demarcation of space with the shimmering greenish-bluish glow exuding a harmonious aura. A curved tree on the right cuts into the stilt Minangkabau architecture with its sharp-horned roof edge with the various room compartments shown grid-like. Off-right is the main figure of a woman traipsing towards viewer. The inconstant moon on top provides just the right light and harmony. All masterfully structured. Dato' Chuah Thean Teng is a rare founder of a world art genre, Batik Painting (Chinese Art In The 20th Century (1959), Professor Michael Sullivan). He was the first Malaysian accorded a Retrospective by the National Art Gallery (1965), followed by another retrospective by his Penang home State in 1994 (Penang State Art Gallery). As a pioneer, he invented several styles and techniques to augment his batik-art repertoire. Teng, as he is better known, was conferred the Dato' award in 1988 and in 2005, he was dubbed Penang's "Living Heritage". When he died in 2008, the National Art Gallery accorded him a rare Memorial Tribute. Among his notable international exhibitions was the Commonwealth Artists of Fame in London, to mark the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Two of his most iconic works are Two Of A Kind and Tell You A Secret.