Lot 114
Ong Kim Seng
b. Singapore, 1945
Kathmandu Series, 2007
signed and dated (lower right)
watercolour on paper
52 x 73cm
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Kuala Lumpur
ESTIMATE RM 25,000 – 45,000
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The delicate play of light and shadows is well caught in this diagonal take of a street scene in Kathmandu near the New Road financial hub. Foreground is a stupa of cut bricks while the centre has barefooted devotees in prayers making their way past the entrance of a Hindu temple (mandir) in the typical Newar style of architecture. The pervasive wash of yellow clay for mortar envelops the whole composition. The afternoon heat is intense and the unpaved roads suggest a dusty scenario though no fume-emitting vehicles are seen. What is most interesting is the broken-mosaic broken-brick façade of the temple on the right top diagonal. It was the watercolours of Nepal, especially Kathmandu, that virtually launched the career of world-acclaimed watercolourist Ong Kim Seng who went fulltime in 1985.
Self-taught Ong Kim Seng has travelled all over the world to paint quaint scenes of romance. Such is his skills that he is the first Asian outside of the United States to be made a member of the American Watercolour Society, and after winning a total of six different awards made a Dolphin Fellow in 2000 (he is a member since 1992). In Singapore, he was accorded the Cultural Medallion (1990) and the Arts Supporters Award (2001) for being adviser to the National Arts Council since 1998. He is also president of the Singapore Watercolour Society from 1991 to 2001, and organising chairman of the Asian Watercolours 1997. His collectors include Queen Elizabeth II, former UN secretary-general Kofi Anan, and former prime ministers of Thailand, Japan and India. In the Hong Kong Sotheby’s auction on April 2, 2017, his acrylic on canvas, Nepal, sold for a premium of HK$735,000. |