Lot 033
Chuah Thean Teng, Dato’
b. China, 1912 – d. Penang, 2008
Come, Sing To Me, 1965
signed ‘Teng’ (lower left)
batik
90 x 62cm
EXHIBITED
Batik Paintings by Chuah Thean Teng of Malaysia,
Commonwealth Institute, UK, 1965;
First Solo Exhibition, National Art Gallery Malaysia, 1965
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Selangor
ESTIMATE RM 30,000 – 55,000
PRICE REALISED RM 49,280.00
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Prized for its plumage beauty and its mellifluous singing voice, a singing bird, especially the ubiquitous merbok (doves) are popular among the Malays in the kampung where they are bred for competitions, and excellent warblers could fetch up to even RM100,000! Usually, the men are the ones training the birds for delivering the best starting, middle and ending notes besides the melody. Here, the artist Dato’ Chuah Thean Teng shifts the focus to the mother and child, with the squatting woman cooing the bird to show off what it can do, while another woman, probably a neighbour, bends over anxiously, her ears perked up. The inquisitive Junior, in the buff, props himself on some makeshift stool to get closer to the action. The bright colours used add to the chirpy mood, but the durians, with one pried open, do look incongruous. Certainly, it’s no bird food, for its pungent smell would put off any recital. This work was the featured cover piece on the exhibition catalogue in Teng’s solo at the Commonwealth Institute Gallery in Kensington in London in 1965, his second after his first in 1959, with the cover essay written by pioneering art promoter cum gallerist Frank Sullivan.
Dato’ Chuah Thean Teng is a world acclaimed art legend, dubbed the ‘Father of Batik Painting’ by the then Singapore-based Professor Michael Sullivan (Chinese Art in the 20th Century, 1959). The Penang State Government awarded him the Dato’ title in 1998, the Living Heritage status in 2005, and a Retrospective in 1994 (Penang State Art Gallery). He was also given a Retrospective by the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, in 1965, and a Memorial Exhibition in 2008. He was trained in art at the Xiamen (Amoy) Art Institute, China (uncompleted), and moved to Penang in 1926. He set up his batik museum, Yahong Art Gallery, Batu Ferringhi, in 1974, from its earlier base in Leith Street in 1953. Images of two of his works, Two Of A Kind and Tell You A Secret, were chosen for UNICEF’s greeting cards in 1968 and 1988 respectively. Since auctions started in Malaysia in 2010 (Henry Butcher), Teng’s works have hit six digits seven times, the highest being a premium of RM176,000 in the Henry Butcher October 2012 auction. |
