Chuah Thean Teng Explained

Chuah Thean Teng
Birth Name:Cai Tianding
Birth Date:1914
Birth Place:Fujian, China
Death Date: (aged 96)
Death Place:Penang, Malaysia
Nationality:Malaysian
Field:Painting

Dato' Chuah Thean Teng (; 191425 November 2008), also known as Cai Tianding, was a Malaysian artist who is credited with the development of batik as a painting technique.[1] [2]

Early life and education

Chuah Thean Teng was born in 1914 in Fujian, China; Chuah's father traded sundries while his mother made shoes for women with bound feet. The family emigrated to Penang, Malaysia when Chuah was 14; Chuah returned to Fujian to pursue an education at the Amoy Art School (later the Xiamen Academy of Fine Arts), but returned to Malaya (now Malaysia) at the age of 17. He subsequently experimented with various art media, including oils and woodblock printing[3] on his own under the pseudonym Choo Ting, while working part-time as an art teacher.[4]

Early experiments in art

Following World War II, Chuah opened a batik factory in Penang. While the venture quickly proved to be a failure, Chuah began experimenting with batik as an art form.[4] According to T.K. Sabapathy, Chuah produced his first batik medium work entitled Malayan Life in 1941.

In his 1963 article in The Sunday Mail, "Teng - Master of Batik", Frank Sullivan[5] said of his work "It is astonishing to think that although making batik has been common for hundreds of years, no one before Teng ever thought of adapting this age-old craft as a medium of fine art." He went on to say "Teng and Teng alone, is responsible for this most original contribution to the whole world of art. As an artist in this old and new medium, Teng is the unquestioned master."

Chuah was credited by art critics like Frank Sullivan for conceiving the idea of combining the traditional Malayan craft medium of batik and its techniques with the tradition of modern easel painting.[6]

Some of the themes which appeared in Chuah's work on include the human figure, landscapes and abstract compositions. Of these, the human figure has been the most significant.[7]

Career

He held his first exhibition in 1955 at the Penang Library, curated by Patricia Lim, which was followed by the 1956 exhibition "An Exhibition of Batik Paintings and Other Works", organised by the Singapore Art Society and held at the British Council Gallery, Singapore.[8] This seminal exhibition was credited with inaugurating Batik painting as a new art category.

He established the art and antique gallery Yahong Art Gallery in Penang in 1975. His artworks were featured on UNICEF greeting cards in 1967 and UNESCO greeting cards in 1989.[9] He was the second Malaysian artist to be accorded a Retrospective Exhibition at the National Art Gallery (now Balai Seni Visual Negara) in 1965.[10]

In 1968, Chuah's Yahong Gallery published "Batik", which included essays by Ungku Abdul Aziz, then Chairman of the National Art Gallery, and Frank Sullivan, as well as for the first time, essays by Chuah himself, on his philosophy and techniques.[11]

In 1983, Chuah was included in the first national survey of modern Malaysian artists by T. K. Sabapathy and Redza Piyadasa, "Modern Artists of Malaysia", which was commissioned and published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

Final years

He was conferred the Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri (DSPN) by the Penang State Government in 1998, which carried the title of Dato'. Chuah was awarded the Penang Heritage Trust's Living Heritage Award in 2005.[4] [12] He remained active in his final years and died on 25 November 2008 aged 96.[13] [14] [15] Chuah is survived by three sons, all of whom are also artists: Siew Teng (born 1944), Seow Keng (born 1945), and Siew Kek (born 1946).[4] [14]

Legacy

Chuah Thean Teng is widely regarded as the "father of batik art" who developed batik as a means of painting; "his adaptation of the traditional batik medium into an accepted form of painting ... elevated the status of batik as a craft to an art medium."

Chuah has had the distinction of having works being in the foundational National collections of both Malaysia and Singapore. His 1952 work "Perairan Pulau Pinang" was one of a number of works given to the Malaysian Government to form the nucleus of the collection of the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur.[16] Similarly, a number of Chuah's works were gifted by Loke Wan Tho to the Singapore Government, which became Singapore's National Collection of visual art, currently under the care of the National Gallery, Singapore.[17] [18]

This has continued to the present day, as Chuah's self-portrait, which uses batik to depict a "very strong gaze showing his (Chuah's) sense of determination", was the first artwork to be registered in the National Collection of visual art when the National Gallery, Singapore was established.[19] [20]

In December 2022, a book "Exploring Southeast Asia with Chuah Thean Teng: Father of Batik Painting" illustrating Chuah's life and his contributions to Southeast Asian art was published.[21]

Solo exhibitions

Source:

References

Notes and References

  1. News: Sullivan . Frank . 17 November 1963 . Teng, Master of Batik . . 4 . Kuala Lumpur.
  2. Book: Sullivan, Michael. Modern Chinese Artists: A Biographical Dictionary. University of California Press. 978-0-520-24449-8. 2006. 7.
  3. Book: Teng: satu penghargaan = an appreciation . 2008 . Balai Seni Lukis Negara . 978-983-3497-31-7 . Balai Seni Lukis Negara (Malaysia) . Kuala Lumpur . 16-23.
  4. News: Father of batik painting. 3 December 2006. Kwee Kim. Choong. The Star.
  5. Web site: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia . 60 Years of Australia in Malaysia, Chapter 4: A Vibrant Tradition of Artistic Exchange . 60 Years of Australia in Malaysia, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia.
  6. Seng . Yu Jin . 2006 . The Primacy of Painting, Institutional Structures of the Singapore Art World from 1935 to 1972 . Unpublished thesis for Masters of Arts . Department of History, National University of Singapore . Singapore.
  7. Book: Sabapathy . T.K. . Piyadasa . Red . Modern Artists of Malaysia . 1983 . Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Ministry of Education Malaysia . Kuala Lumpur . 50–53.
  8. Book: An Exhibition of Batik Paintings and Other Works . 1956 . Singapore Art Society . 1956 . Singapore.
  9. Book: Naziree, Shireen . Convergence: Past, Reality & Future: Selected Artworks of Petronas Art Collection . Galeri Petronas . 2013 . 978-983-9738-89-6 . 50.
  10. Book: Soon, Simon . Love me in my batik: modern batik art from Malaysia and beyond: 28 February-15 June 2016, ILHAM, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia . 2016 . IB Tower Gallery Sdn. Bhd . 978-967-13509-1-1 . Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
  11. Book: Chuah, Thean Teng . Batik . 1968 . Yahong Art Gallery . 1968 . Penang.
  12. Book: Teng, Satu Penghargaan - An Appreciation . Balai Seni Lukis Negara . 2008 . 978-983-3497-31-7 . Kuala Lumpur . 23.
  13. Web site: 7 February 2017 . Who's your daddy? Chuah Thean Teng@BSLN . https://web.archive.org/web/20201129161000/https://www.arteri.com.my/2017/02/07/whos-your-daddy-chuah-thean-tengbsln/ . 29 November 2020 . Arteri.
  14. News: What now, after Teng (Sr)?. Penang Monthly. Kok Chuen. Ooi. September 2010.
  15. News: 大馬文化品牌代表人物 峇迪畫之父蔡天定逝世. Chinese. Malaysia's cultural ambassador and Father of Batik Painting Cai Tianding dies. 26 November 2008. Sina.
  16. Book: Teng: satu penghargaan = an appreciation . 2008 . Balai Seni Lukis Negara . 978-983-3497-31-7 . Balai Seni Lukis Negara (Malaysia) . Kuala Lumpur . 23.
  17. Web site: Untold Stories of the National Collection Unveiled at (Re)collect: The Making of our Art Collection exhibition by National Gallery Singapore . 2024-06-02 . National Gallery Singapore . en.
  18. News: 8 May 2018 . National Gallery Singapore shows off art collected since 1960 . The Straits Times.
  19. Web site: Editorial Team . The first artwork in our National Collection . National Gallery Singapore . National Gallery Singapore . 25 June 2023.
  20. Web site: Self Portrait . 2024-05-20 . www.roots.gov.sg . en.
  21. Book: Wong Nava . Eva . Say . Jeffrey . Quek . Hong Shin . Exploring Southeast Asia with Chuah Thean Teng: Father of Batik Painting . 2022 . Penguin Random House SEA . Singapore . 978-981-4954-37-2.

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