theSun | THURSDAY DECEMBER 18 2008
| General Investment Account-i |
INTERVIEWS VIEWS
HIMANSHU BHATT/THESUN
Chuah with two of his sons, Siew Teng (left) and Seow Keng, who are also artists, in this 2006
photograph. Behind them is a mural Chuah made in the early 60s called “Malaysian Life”.
Tribute to an art icon
LATE last month, a legend
among modern artists died
quietly on our own shores. While
art circles poured out their
tributes, there was little fanfare
among ordinary Malaysians.
And it must reflect on the sorry
state of our social and education
systems that most people are
hardly aware that the nation has TheNutmeg excitedly announced, “Malaya
lost one of its most iconic sons.
For Datuk Chuah Thean Verses
Teng, who passed away on Nov by Himanshu Bhatt were the works that a university
25 in Penang at the age of 96,
was no ordinary figure. A glance
at his batik paintings would show the
deep power of his legacy. His historic
introduction of the batik medium in fine
art set up a new path for generations to
follow – even though he had a singular
style that was difficult to imitate.
When Chuah held his earliest
exhibition in 1955, it caused a stir in global
art circles. It was the first ever viewing of
art paintings made in batik.
The Daily Mail in Britain hailed him
as a revolutionary in the world of art.
“Finding an entirely new and immediately
convincing method of pictorial expression
is a rare occurrence,” wrote its critic,
Pierre Jeanneret. “The last I can think of
was the invention of lithography between
1796 and 1798. Now comes another.”
Chuah created such an impact that he
was asked to do the interior mural for the
august hall of Parliament house in Kuala
Lumpur by the building’s British architect.
He came up with a resplendent design that
depicted the varied people and cultural
life of Malaysia. But strangely enough, the
work was never allowed to be executed on
the Parliament wall after the British left.
But the rest of the world continued to
recognise the significance of his works.
Unicef famously used the images of his
paintings for its greeting cards, as have
publications like Reader’s Digest.
Chuah’s images have become icons
of an unadulterated Asian romance with
rustic tranquillity. There is a strange,
gentle intensity permeating the people
in Chuah’s colourful worlds. His human
figures, particularly children and women,
are rounded and beautiful, exuding a
sense of guileless innocence and warmth.
His works, packed with robust
geometric outlines and vivid colours,
radiate with serene celebration of rural
life, with themes like pastoral labour.
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And when his paintings were then
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For decades after that, celebrities and 50 – 54 Jalan Burhanuddin Helmi, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, Kuala Lumpur.
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ingeniously use sunlight to induce delicate
changes in colour; he discovered just the
right temperatures for wax to be placed on
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For his place in our nation’s history, it
is only apt that we give due recognition to
the legacy of Chuah. It is time that Chuah’s
profound contribution to our culture and
art is celebrated, perhaps in the same vein
that Holland takes pride in Van Gogh,
Spain in Salvador Dali and China in Xu
Beihong.
www.standardchartered.com.my
The National Art Gallery is holding a
retrospective exhibition on Chuah Thean
Teng until February. Details, call 03-
40267000.