Lot 124
Khoo Sui Hoe
b. Kedah, 1939
Lake Merah, 2002
signed (lower left)
oil on canvas
120 x 99cm
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Selangor
ESTIMATE RM 38,000 – 60,000
PRICE REALISED RM 42,560.00 |
Lake Merah captures Khoo Sui Hoe’s unique vision of nature in a poetic work exploring illusion and reality. A symbolic gate like entrance stands amidst a red lake, blending with the sky in perfect harmony. The structure is painted in rainbow like colours, while the sky and water are tinted with a reddish-brown hue. The river provided much inspiration for the artist in his later years.
Khoo Sui Hoe won many admirers when he boldly and immediately went full time into art in 1961 after completing his studies at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Art in Singapore. In 1974, he was awarded the John D. Rockefeller III Fund grant to study at the Pratt Graphic Centre in New York. Khoo is a rare artist with a Retrospective and two mini-Retrospectives. The Penang State Art Gallery honoured him with a Retrospective, The Painted World Of Khoo Sui Hoe, in 2007. His minis are at The Art Gallery Penang, in 2013, of works from 1967 to 2013; and at Wisma Kebudayaan Soka Gakkai Malaysia, in August 2017, apart from two other major exhibitions at HELP Institute in 1992 and Datuk Seri Lim’s Bellevue Hotel in Penang Hill in 2000. The Penang Museum Board had in 1978 already given Khoo a solo, of his works from 1963 to 1973. He was also given a two-part An Overview exhibition, the second at the Private Museum, Singapore. Recent Paintings at the prestigious Shanghai Art Museum in July 5-14 add to his stature. Sui Hoe won Honourable Mention in the prestigious Salon Malaysia in 1969 and also 1st Prize (Oil) in the Malaysian Art & Craft competition in 1965. Khoo is the spiritual leader of the Utara Group, formed in 1977. He was also a gallerist, handling the Alpha Gallery Singapore in 1972, which was revived in Penang in 2004 as the Alpha Utara Gallery. He also exhibited at PAM Centre in 2017, and at Daiichi Art Space in 2019. |