Lot 53 | 13 December 2020

 

 

LOT 53

CHEONG LAI TONG

B. China, 1932

Untitled, 2003

Signed “Lai Tong’03” on upper right

Oil on canvas

56 x 76 cm

Private Collection, Kuala Lumpur

RM 22,000 – RM 55,000

Cheong Lai Tong was best known for being the creative genius behind the 115-foot mural that majestically embellish the walls of the National Museum of Malaysia. He was born in 1932 in Guangzhou, China and moved to Malaya when he was a child with his mother and two sisters in 1938 to avoid the Japanese Occupation in China. Cheong then enrolled in a Chinese school before the Japanese occupation of Malaya, but lessons were not conducted during the occupation. He started learning the English language when he was 18 years old. Claiming his foray into art accidental, Cheong was born with the gift to draw yet wasn’t exposed to art until he received an American scholarship and subsequently also studied art in London.