Lot 33 | 9 July 2023

 

 

LOT 33

SEAH KIM JOO

B. Singapore, 1939

Two Women, 1970’s

Batik

88 x 53 cm

Private Collection, United Kingdom

Signed on lower left

RM 5,000 – 12,000

It was Seah Kim Joo’s hometown in Terengganu that exposed him to batik in his early days. His passion for batik painting only grew in the 1950s, when the Penang- based artist Chuah Thean Teng first pioneered painting using the batik medium. It also resulted in Seah being an ardent 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. Seah’s works is nature and people, apart from occasional abstract pieces. Perhaps it was the cultural background of his hometown in Terengganu that influenced his choice of subject matters. Ever equipped with an ethereal quality, ‘Two Women’ is a batik work rendered in an orange hue, with villages in a distance and in the foregrounds, two ladies are portrayed with a motif-lined sarongs and a top.