Author Description

Cheong Soo Pieng was an artist who created visually fresh pictures of Southeast Asia's landscapes and people. By marrying the artistic traditions of the East and the West, he broke new ground in the portrayal of the tropics. Common Southeast Asian subjects--a fisherman's kelong, two sarong-clad women on the way to the market, a group of people busy drying fish, the graceful figure of a Balinese dancer--take on new stylised forms through Cheong's deft use of pictorial devices and techniques from different cultures and traditions, such as Chinese ink painting, Western oil painting, Cubism, geometric abstraction and wayang kulit. This book is the first of its kind on Cheong. Ninety-four colour plates present the reader with the breadth and complexity of this Nanyang artist's extensive oeuvre. The chapters include a wealth of personal photographs as well as the latest research on the artist. Pictures of recently unearthed drawings, sketches, watercolours and woodcut prints shed further light on Cheong's personal philosophy and artistic ambitions.