Lot 068
Peter Liew
b. Perak, 1955
Flower Still Life, 1978
signed and dated (lower right)
oil on canvas
53 x 45cm
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Kuala Lumpur
ESTIMATE RM 14,000 – 24,000
PRICE REALISED RM 10,000.00
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This is an early Peter Liew, done in 1978 the year he was awarded Best Student at the Malaysian Institute of Art (MIA) and a year before he graduated. It was a hastily self-assembled still life of flowers, notably chrysanthemum within the MIA premises, and executed with brush, unlike say, a 2007 still life piece, Untitled, which was sold at the Henry Butcher May 6, 2012 auction and was done with the palette knife with stabbing abstract strokes. This early work was executed the normal way, with an eye to the play of light, elements of harmony and colour contrasts, but in such subdued tones bordering on femininity, of yellow and pink. As if commenting on his frugal days, the flowers are shown in throes of withering as evident by some dropped petals on the table where the vase is stood. It is a soft colour palette that Peter Liew abandoned in his later works of darker chiaroscuro and with rough-hewn veneer. The sense of impermanence and innocence is latent. Still life of flowers have been used as a subject since the Netherlandish Renaissance artists (c. 1500s-1600s).
After his graduation, Peter Liew taught at his alma-mater from 1981 until 1993. On his own in 1994, he started using palette knife and achieved some success in his break-through solo exhibition at Galeri Maybank in 1997 although he first painted in palette knife in 1981. A traveller artist dubbed the Poet of the Panorama, Peter Liew has eked a reputation for his spectacular alfresco landscapes in his travels all around the world. His notable canvases also cover old architecture, quaysides, and ‘landscape’ portraits. Peter Liew’s auction record, of RM72,600, for Golden Malacca (1997) was set at Henry Butcher’s inaugural auction on Aug 8, 2010. |