Lot 012
TAY HOOI KEAT, DATO’
b. Penang 1910 – 1989
A COUNTRY LANE, 1973
Signed and dated ‘TAY ‘73’ lower left
Mixed media on paper
33cm x 26cm
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Kuala Lumpur.
ESTIMATE RM 11,000 - 15,000
PRICE REALISED RM 14,300
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In A Country Lane, Dato’ Tay Hooi Keat favours a more abstract dispersal play of pink-red, light yellow and dull blue in stark highlights to achieve an intriguing composition. The pathway that leads into the forest is represented in a buoyant tone. By disecting the scenery in front of him into flat planes of primary colours, the artist deconstructs and reconstructs the landscape as interlocking shapes and forms that are enhanced with bold and instinctive linear motifs in the manner of Cubism. Vivid shades of hues interlace with intentional space to create depth, leading the eye along the winding country lane into the centre where perspective converges.
Dato’ Tay Hooi Keat graduated from the Camberwell School of Art, London in 1952. On his return, he was made the Penang Superintendent of Art and then the Federal Inspectorate of Art in the Education Ministry when Malaya attained Independence in 1957. He was the founding treasurer of the Penang Chinese Art Club, and was chairman of the Penang Museum Art Gallery (PMAG) board of trustees from 1964 to 1989. He was the first artist to be awarded a Datoship in 1986. He rarely had solo exhibitions since his first at the Penang Library in 1947. In 1980, the PMAG gave him a tribute exhibition and in 1983 the National Art Gallery honoured him with a retrospective.
REFERENCE
A Tribute to Tay Hooi Keat, Penang Museum and Art Gallery, 1980.
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