LOT 64
TAN THEAN SONG
B. Kedah, 1946
Mother and Daughter, 2008
Signed “Thean Song” on lower left
Batik
75 x 46.5 cm
Provenance
Private Collection, Kedah
AVAILABLE
RM 2,000 – RM 4,000
The women in Tan Thean Song’s paintings always have those distinctively bodies that are a tad elongated. Captured in this piece is a woman and a child, both are caught in a moment of peace and serenity.
This painting has a certain glow to it, providing the viewers instantaneously with calmness and serenity. The subjects have their eyes shut, as Thean Song decorates the batik with earthy oolours, smoothly blending them, as if the environment and every other distraction blurred so as to focus solely on this moment. All in all, it is a romantic and lyrical depiction of a mother and her daughter sharing a moment together, enjoying each other’s company.
Full-time batik artist Tan Thean Song was born in Kedah in 1946 and is a graduate of the renowned Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Thean Song, who also paints with watercolour and Chinese ink, has participated in a number of art competitions and has won plenty of awards, including the first and consolation prizes in the Malaysian Young Artists Art Competition in 1964 and the second prize in batik medium in the Salon Malaysia Art Competition with the painting ‘Playing Kite’ in 1969, which is now a permanent collection of the National Art Gallery Kuala Lumpur. He has held solo exhibitions in Adelaide, Australia and Penang, as well as being involved in group exhibitions in Malaysia and Singapore.