LOT 30
CHUAH THEAN TENG, DATO’
B. China, 1914 – 2008
Misty Morning, 1960’s
Signed “Teng” on lower right
Rice paper
90 x 45 cm
Private Collection, Australia
RM 15,000 – RM 30,000
Dato’ Chuah Thean Teng, known as the Father of Batik Art, was a master storyteller. His paintings offered not only a glimpse of the olden days, but also expressed the cultural identity of Malaysians. Complex batik making methods using wax and dyes allowed Teng to create rich blue hues that captured the serenity of village life in this radiant composition of the local landscape. Dato’ Chuah Thean Teng is a legend for his teeming imagination in his repertoire of batik art he invented in 1953, and invested it with different styles and techniques over the years. He was hailed by Professor Michael Sullivan as the Father of Batik Painting (Chinese Art In The 20th Century, 1959). He was honoured with a Retrospective by the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, in 1965, and another by the Penang State Art Gallery in 1994. The NAG organised his Memorial exhibition in 2008. The Penang State Government bestowed him the ‘Dato’ title in 1998, and the ‘Living Heritage Award’ in 2005. On the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of the coronation of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in 1977, he was invited for the Commonwealth Artists of Fame exhibition in London, after an exhibition at the Commonwealth Institute in London in 1959. His first overseas solo was in the United States in 1964. Born in China, where he had a short incomplete art tutelage at the Xiamen (Amoy) Art Institute, he settled in Penang in 1926, after a brief visit when aged 7.