Cheong Soo Pieng, Untitled (Fishing Village), 1961
Indian ink and colour on paper
40 x 62 cm (visible), 64 x 84 x 3.5 cm (framed)
Condition: Very good, with foxing on the top right section of the work. The backboard of the frame has come loose, and reframing is advised.
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Cheong Soo Pieng (Singaporean, 1917-1983), born in Xiamen, China, was a trailblazing artist whose innovative approach reshaped traditional Chinese painting. He studied Chinese ink painting at the Xiamen Academy of Fine Arts and expanded his repertoire at the Xin Hua Academy of Fine Arts in Shanghai, where he embraced Western artistic concepts. By the time he migrated to Singapore in 1946, Cheong had mastered both Chinese and Western painting traditions. In Singapore, he found artistic freedom, inspiring him to break traditional boundaries and explore unchartered creative territories.
A pivotal moment in Cheong’s career came during his European tour, under the patronage of Singaporean filmmaking magnate Loke Wan Tho. This journey, which included exhibitions in London, Dublin, Berlin and Munich, exposed Cheong to Europe’s dynamic art scene in the early 1960s. Immersed in the works of luminaries such as Paul Klee, Matisse, and Kandinsky, he was inspired to experiment with abstraction and modernism while maintaining his Chinese artistic roots. This transformative experience influenced him to fuse Eastern and Western elements, resulting in a distinct style that pushed the boundaries of modern art in Asia.
As a result, Cheong’s work reflected more interest in experimental formats and in the modernist interplay between abstraction and representation. In Untitled (Fishing Village), he uniquely configures the subject of the fishing village through his own unique abstract perspective. The fishing village was a subject common amongst members of the Ten Men Art Group like Cheong and his peers like Lim Tze Peng and Chen Chong Swee. The group would often travel on sketching trips to fishing villages in Terengganu, Kelantan and Kukup. “Ane tu xi ane”, or “this is how things are”, as Soo Pieng would often remind his students at NAFA, Untitled (Fishing Village) reinforces his belief in looking and expressing subjects in one’s own unique way. In Untitled (Fishing Village), Cheong bridges worlds, combining Chinese art concepts with Western approaches to create a distinctive work that embodied his personal journey and artistic liberation while abroad.
Acquired from a dealer at Tanglin Shopping Centre.
(Photographed in November 2025)