Oil on canvas

43 x 51.7 cm. 17 x 20 3/8 in.

Signed and dated in English on bottom right
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly by present Asian owner from the artist

A Gifted Artist with Breakthrough Talent
The Art of Cheong Soo Pieng
“I know I have no predecessors, but I like to stand alone.”
Cheong Soo Pieng is undoubtedly one of the most talented and creative Chinese artists of the 20th Century. In an art career that spanned over forty years, he developed a wide-ranging repertoire of work in varying styles and mediums, and constantly pushed the envelope in his artistic language. His dynamic body of work remains a testament to his rare, remarkable talent.
Born in 1917 in Xiamen, China, Soo Pieng studied at Xiamen Academy of Fine Arts and furthered his education at Xinhua Academy of Fine Arts in Shanghai before the outbreak of the 2nd World War. In 1946, he relocated to Singapore to take up a teaching post at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts （NAFA）. By the 1950s, then in his thirties, Soo Pieng rose to the fore as a pioneer of the Nanyang art style and a leading figure in the Malayan art scene. In Singapore as well as Malaysia, many second-generation artists had been inspired by his pictorial innovations at some point in their art practices.
Beginning in the 1950s, Soo Pieng's art also won the support of Singaporean business and Cathay cinema magnate, Loke Wan Tho, who became a fervent patron of his work. The growing support and confidence enabled Soo Pieng to leave his teaching job at NAFA to concentrate as a full-time artist in 1961. Between 1959 and 1961, he arrived at a new artistic frontier with an increased output of aesthetically-accomplished work.
A Turning Point of Art Creation
Abstract Landscape from 1960 stems from this crucial transitional period in Soo Pieng's art career. Rich in colour and texture, it was created through multiple layers of thick oil paints, which gives the work a rhythmic energy and an aura of weathered nostalgia. His strategic arrangement of irregular blocks is a geometric abstraction of the kelong scene and reveals his Chinese xieyi philosophy in capturing the spirit and essence of the subject matter. The well-balanced distribution of juxtaposing colours generates a sense of effervescence and rhythm for the composition. In the centre-right, the high point of white acts as a focal point that stabilises the interlocking visual rhythm. Though relatively small in scale, the painting is commanding in both technique and spirit, and is among the best of Soo Pieng's early abstract work.
Abstract Landscape（Lot14） is revealing of how Soo Pieng had already begun devising a new pictorial style in the 1960 that would later transform into the ‘horizon' composition （characterised by a horizontal plane in the foreground and a circular cosmic-like object that floats above the plane） featured in his iconic Lyrical Abstractseries from 1962-63. The Lyrical Abstract series was produced during and immediately after his 2-year stay in Europe and reflects a complete departure from his 1950s Nanyang style.
Abstract Landscape is an abstract kelong scene pulled together by Soo Pieng's skilful simplification of form into sparse, geometric shapes that are accentuated by bright, radiant hues. At the same time, it reflects his continued use of cubist forms and rectilinear planes often embodied in the Nanyang style. Not only does it capture his evolving artistic direction between the 1950s and 1960s, it provides a bridge to understanding the Lyrical Abstract series he would later produce in 1962-63. The compositional style undertaken in his Lyrical Abstract series seems to have evolved specifically from works like Abstract Landscape, and thus also from his earlier kelong series.
Sympathy to Ordinary Lives
From late-1961 to 1963, Soo Pieng embarked on a two-year sojourn in Europe where he travelled around different cities and held solo exhibitions, including at Redfern Gallery in London. After his return from Europe and fervent exploration of the lyrical abstract language, his practice oscillated back to the figurative style, as characterised by the painting Nanyang Market（Lot15）. His practice at this stage was so stylised that it could be not classified according to any known art styles. Soo Pieng disliked painting en plein air （a practice favoured by his contemporaries）； his emphasis was always on innovative compositional design, hence his habit in quick sketching and repeating a composition in new modes and techniques. The composition for Nanyang Market was one he had previously worked on in the 1950s, using the mediums of pastels and oils. While these earlier versions in the 1950s are characterised by the vibrant tropical expression of Nanyang style, the later Nanyang Market seems to strive for a pensive state that is poised and timeless. In this well-balanced composition where two seated ladies appear to be in conversation, the composition finds its anchor in the egg—held up to the centre of the picture within one of the lady's hand—which gives the painting an enigmatic quality.
Soo Pieng mastered the thin oil technique during his Lyrical Abstract period （1962-63）. This crucial technique of utilising thick oils to articulate surface effects akin to ink wash gesture on paper is also evident in this monochrome composition, which exudes an elegant serenity characteristic of Chinese ink painting. Over the course of his career, even as Soo Pieng constantly amalgamated forms and techniques derived from Western and Chinese art traditions, his Chinese roots and aesthetic outlook remained strongly preserved in his work.

Price estimate:
HKD: 220,000 - 320,000
USD: 28,000 - 40,800

Auction Result:
HKD : 259,600