Lot 013
CHANG FEE MING
b. Terengganu, 1959
WAITING FOR THE BRIDE AND GROOM, UBUD, BALI, 1991
Signed ‘F.M.Chang. Bali’ lower right
Watercolour on paper
23cm x 31cm
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Kuala Lumpur.
ESTIMATE RM 10,000 - 15,000
PRICE REALISED RM 17,600
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Bali has been a second home for Chang Fee Ming and was where he first attracted international fame. Here, he captures this moment of respite amidst the full Hindu-Balinese religious adat (ceremonies) of the male congregation in a wedding with an apex formation leading to the man puffing away nonchalantly at the centre top. The men with the Balinese destar headgear are sitting mostly cross-legged on the temple floor, enjoying snacks and coffee on a green mat littered with crumbs while waiting for the arrival of the wedded couple. With his signature use of short and spontaneous brushstrokes, Fee Ming brilliantly captures the light gaiety of the ceremony in its remarkable details – varied patterns and tectures of the batik sarongs, subtle yet engaging facial expression and body language, as well as the culturally rich Balinese architecture depicted in the wall carvings.
Chang Fee Ming is an accomplished watercolourist known for his unique renditions and interpretations of peoples, traditional societies and their cultures and the often exotic, remote places he visited in Indonesia, Nepal, Africa, the Indo-Chinese communities along the Mekong right up to its source in Tibet. Since his first foray to Bali in 1985, he has etched his place in Indonesian art history, especially in Bali. His array of awards include the Malaysian Watercolour Society award (1984 and 1985), the Sime Darby Art Asia gold award (1985) and the PNB Malaysian Art Award (1985). He also won the Minor Awards in the Young Contemporary Artists competition in 1986 and 1987. He won Distinction Awards in the Rockport Publishers, USA in 1997 and the Dom Perignon Portrait of A Perfectionist Award (Malaysia) in 1999. He was a co-winner (Malaysia) of the Winsor & Newton World Millennium Painting Competition in 1999. In 2009, he was selected for the Singapore Tyler Print Institute project which resulted in his solo exhibition Imprinted Thoughts.
REFERENCE
The World of Chang Fee Ming, Essay: Ooi Kok Chuen, edited by Garrett Kam, 1995.
The Visible Trail of Chang Fee Ming, Christine Rohani Longuet, 2000.
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