Lot 20

LOT 20

THOMAS YEO
(B. Singapore, 1936)

Magic Trees,1980

Signed “TYEO” on lower right
Mixed media on paper
76 x 42.5 cm

Provenance
Private Collection, Singapore

SOLD – RM 7,840

Through his travels, Thomas Yeo has experienced the ever-changing and urbanization of Singapore. Although he mentioned that everybody in Singapore is familiar with construction and digging works in the city and despite it being a detriment, it actually inspired him to create works of art.

Saturated with lovely, soothing colours, perhaps what Thomas Yeo has captured here is nature and modernization at their best – when they are at a balance. It may also signify the beginning of the coalescing of nature and modernization, and how construction is the promise of the future. The grey area in the canvas may symbolize the city, where he once said will shoot for the sky one day.

Born in 1936 in Singapore, Yeo graduated from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1960 and then studied at the Chelsea School of Art and Hammersmith College of Art & Architecture in London. He served as the chairman of the Shell Discovery Art Awards and the president of the Modern Art Society, Singapore.