Lee Cheng Yong employs a variety of shape, form, colour and line to convey a visual language ”to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.” A departure from reality in depiction of imagery in art, Lee Cheng Yong chooses to illustrate an abstract rendition of a rubber plantation in a multitude of colours ranging from yellow, orange, red, blue, green, brown to black. The result is visually appealing celebrating the process of rubber tapping, which normally takes place early in the morning, when the internal pressure of the tree is highest.
 

Lee Cheng Yong studied at Xin Hua Art Academy (later known as the Shanghai Academy of Fine Art) in 1927 and held his first solo exhibition at the Philomatic Union in Acheen Street, Penang in 1932 while his next was in 1960 at the Chin Kang Association in Macalister Road in Penang. He formed the Penang Chinese Art Club in 1935 and was elected its first president. He was honoured with the Lee Cheng Yong Memorial exhibition by the Penang State Art Gallery in 1996. Although Lee Cheng Yong left copious works on various subjects in various media indicating his versatility, he was also known as a dedicated art teacher at the Chung Ling High School. He fostered generations of star students such as Chong Hon Fatt and Chai Chuan Jin. He was prodigious mostly in oils, with works in the Post-Impressionist mould. Besides paintings, he had also done sculptures and murals. His works are collected in among others, the Fukuoka Art Museum and the Singapore Art Museum.

 

REFERENCE

Lee Cheng Yong Retrospective Exhibition , The Art Gallery, 1996.

Eight Pioneers of Malaysian Art (With Supplement on Peter Harris) , Dato’ Dr. Tan Chee Khuan, Penang State Art Gallery, 2013.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_art