LOT 59
CHEW TENG BENG, DR
B. Terengganu, 1938
Abstract, 1981
Acrylic on canvas
110 x 116 cm
Signed in Chinese character by the artist
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Canada
RM 2,500 – 5,000
Chew Teng Beng is an abstract artist well known for his distinct combination of fusing Eastern and Western motifs. He’s an alchemist when it comes to the blending of colours, displaying a strong visual acuity while bringing forth his work’s sense of gentility and sensitivity. A sought-after Fulbright-Hays scholarship sponsored his art studies at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan in 1967 until 1968. Due to his excellence in his art studies, he was also able to receive a scholarship from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to further his Bachelor of Fine Arts the following year, followed by his master’s degree. He then went into lecturing life drawing and printmaking in the same university under a teaching fellowship. Dating from 1981, this Untitled work reveals Dr. Chew Teng Beng’s distinctive modernist sensibility, where colour, form and gesture converge in adynamic abstract composition. His confident handling of acrylic creates a sense of movement and visual tension, inviting the viewer to discovershifting forms and rhythms within the canvas.