Lot 16
SEAH KIM JOO
B. Singapore, 1939
Portrait of a Young Girl, 1970s
Signed “Seah Kim Joo” on lower right
Batik
60 x 45 cm
Provenance Private Collection, Singapore
RM 6,500 – RM 10,000
Seah Kim Joo was born in 1939 and raised in Terengganu. He was introduced to the process of traditional batik-making very early in his career as an artist through the environment of his hometown. In the 1950s, when the Penang- based artist Chuah Thean Teng first pioneered painting using the batik medium, Seah Kim Joo was then drawn even more into batik painting. This made Seah a passionate follower of the late Chuah and his works, since the manifestation of contemporary themes in a traditional medium was regarded as a direct expression of Nanyang regionalism.
His work entitled ‘Portrait of a Young Girl’ uses soothing tones of the sun, accompanied by highlights of nature as two-dimensional shapes overlay and fades into one another when met. Repetitive pa terns reside behind the young girl as her lips appear pursed and her hands at her front.