Cheong Soo Pieng, River Crossing, 1978, Chinese ink and colour on paper
Featuring about 12 paintings by revered pioneer artist Cheong Soo Pieng, this exhibition aims to provide audience an insightful glimpse into a rarely seen late body of ink work by the artist. Beginning in the period of 1978, Soo Pieng undertook another stylistic turn in his ink practice where previous familiar pictorial styles were eschewed in favour of a new discourse founded on the classical aesthetics of Chinese Sung dynasty. To date, this late body of ink work remains poorly understood in its context and relevance to the artist’s entire oeuvre.
Charting New Waters: A Study of Cheong Soo Pieng’s Late Ink Work is curated with the objective to study Soo Pieng’s ink work of this late period, illuminating the intricacies involved in his innovative interpretation of ancient classical Chinese ink aesthetics. The showcase also includes a small handful of Soo Pieng’s early ink work, which helps demonstrates the artist’s earlier compositional preoccupations and allows us to trace his transitions in artistic strategies to arrive at a new stylised pictorial language in this late body of ink work. The works are drawn from a few private collections, with most of the pieces being exhibited for the first time.
Artist Talk: The exhibition will be accompanied by a ticketed talk titled Singapore Artist Series: Cheong Soo Pieng, happening Wednesday, 11 September 2019, 7:00pm – 9:30pm at artcommune gallery’s premises. Interested participants, please email us at valerie@artcommune.com.sg
Venue: artcommune gallery, 76 Bras Basah Road, #01-01 Carlton Hotel, Singapore 189558
When: 6 - 15 Sep 2019, 12noon - 7pm
