鍾泗濱

直接購自藝術家
私人收藏，新加坡

新加坡，新加坡博物館，南洋藝術學院，「鐘泗濱」展，2013年2月2日-3月3日

《鐘泗濱》，新加坡，南洋藝術學院，2013年，第62頁

The work is in good condition overall. Upon close observation, there is evidence of light wear and handling around the edges of the painting due to the basic framing process. Examination under ultraviolet light reveals no evidence of restoration. Framed, under Plexiglas.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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The Artistic Journey of Cheong Soo Pieng

Cheong Soo Pieng’s foray into abstraction during the early 1960s to late 1970s marked his determination to invent a new artistic language that could express “the insurmountable energies and aspirations” he came to absorb and develop through the course of his early career and travels to date.¹ The stylistic venture was in some ways a spiritual and intellectual response to the foreign landscapes of Europe.

Having achieved immense success in his solo exhibitions at three different galleries in —Frost & Reed Gallery (London), Galerie Schoninger (Munich) and Redfern Gallery (London), Soo Pieng extended his European sojourn to a two-year stay from 1961 to 1963.² The works painted during this period spanned across various mediums, encompassing paper, canvas, metal reliefs and other mixed media combinations. They are characterized by an almost obsessive fixation on composition, colour and harmony, for Soo Pieng was deeply fascinated by the abstract relationship between pictorial elements and emotions.

During the latter half of the twentieth century, art informel and its various subsets were the main avant-garde currents dominating the post-war European art scene. Consequently, the radical dispositions at the time opened up unchartered artistic frontiers for Soo Pieng. Emerging from the shadows of the World War II trauma was a renewed preoccupation with individuality and the human spirit. Artists sought to break away from traditional notions of composition; likewise, Soo Pieng freed his brush entirely from realistic depictions for the very first time.

The four Lots, Abstract Landscape (Lot 373), Temperate (Lot 372), Vermillion Abstract (Lot 375), and Excitement (Lot 374), are prominent examples of Soo Pieng’s commitment to purely composition elements such as tonality, texture, colour and form. These works demonstrate Soo Pieng’s major stylistic breakthrough, where he shifted from his earlier experimentations with figurative works to a thorough exploration of formalist techniques. The execution of these paintings are highly time specific, and therefore affirms Soo Pieng’s unique position and voice in the international exchange and dialogue of abstraction during the 1960s. Working primarily from imagination and memory, these highly expressive paintings feature a contemplative silence and a certain serene idealism that seem to lie outside the concrete reality of premeditated structures and shapes.

Executed in 1961, Abstract Landscape represents an early instance of Soo Pieng’s experimentation with abstract motifs. He composed the canvas with an esthetical arrangement of elemental shapes such as squares and rectangles. Soo Pieng’s severe concern with spatial configuration is reflected in the careful execution of a highly controlled composition. A metaphorical representation of the sky and the sea could be inferred from the lighter upper portion and the denser darker area beneath. The focal point is shifted off-center and slightly to the lower right where the crux of the composition unravels. Furthermore, Soo Pieng sought to emphasize the essentials of painting by restricting the palette to variations of the three primary colours. An imminent sense of balance pervades the work.

Painted just one year later in 1962, Temperate shows Soo Pieng’s further development in the new artistic expression, which is evident in the more fluid and freely applied brushwork. The distinction between foreground and background grows less apparent, where the amorphous shapes emerge out from an enigmatic surrounding to form a waterfall of interlocking shapes and strokes. The strong modulation of colours suggests an awareness of perceptual depth, while the deep vivid purple may resonate with certain inexplicable emotions within.

Soo Pieng reintroduced a semi-representational scene while painting Vermillion Abstract in 1965; the emblematic elements still hold an abstract tenor but the composition recalls a tranquil terrain or an open field. He depicted the scene in calligraphic lines and gentle colour washes—the unique combination exemplifies the artist’s reinvention of shanshui painting with a distinct Western abstract sensibility. The hazy vista captures the passing of a thought or the impression of a memory, and remained as an on-going theme towards the end of his ‘abstract phase.’

The artist’s continuous desire to evolve and heighten his practice is illuminated by the strong graphical quality in the 1974 mixed media work entitled Excitement. Evident in the work is a repetition of geometric symbols harking back to Soo Pieng’s long-held interest in hieroglyphics and “the unknown languages in history."³ The heavily stylised forms foreshadow the iconography he had later developed for his Bali and Sarawak women: “The formalistic devices Soo Pieng employed were catalysts for both his figurative art and that involving abstraction. In understanding the language of materials, he had begun to assemble his personal iconography, and one that related to other symbols and icons he would have absorbed throughout his life.”⁴ By this time, Soo Pieng had already adopted his modernized signature based on phonetics, representing “Soo” with four horizontal strokes and rewriting “Pieng” in an aesthetically simplified fashion. As our eyes linger within the ethereal space of these paintings, we find ourselves enlightened by the profundity of Soo Pieng’s mindscape.

¹ Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Soo Pieng, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore, 2013, P. 20

² Yeo Wei Wei, Cheong Soo Pieng: Visions of South East Asia, The National Art Gallery, Singapore 2010, P. 103

3 Refer to 1, p. 26

⁴ Refer to 2, p. 25