Drying Salted Fish

Cheong Soo Pieng (1917-1983) is regarded as a pivotal figure in Singapore'�s modern art development. Born in Xiamen, China, he was part of a group of artists that attempted to articulate a style identifiable and pertinent to post-war Singapore, then known collectively with Malaysia, as Malaya. This style, later crystallized as the Nanyang Style, provided a foundation upon which future generations of artists learned and expanded on. A key element of the Nanyang Style was the synthesis of Chinese pictorial elements and the diverse formalistic qualities from the School of Paris. Like many artists of his generation, Cheong was keen to explore new ways of representing the tropical lands and its people. �'Drying Satled Fish�' is rendered in a manner that combines Chinese ink brush techniques with a local subject matter. The intricate line work, akin to �'gongbi�' (meticulous brush technique), demonstrates Cheong'�s strong foundation in Chinese ink painting. This painting is an example of Cheong�'s success in creating a new pictorial format by synthesizing the horizontal scroll format of Chinese painting with the easel format of Western painting.