Resting

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. 'Resting', an image of one seated and the other reclining, recurs in several of Cheong's paintings. Various techniques are used in the depiction of this image. In this case, Cheong who was both a painter and a sculptor rendered the image by hammering halfway into the metal or board into different reliefs that simulate foliage or grass prior to the layers of oil. �'Resting'� is deemed to be made after Cheong's European trip � the phase where his abstract art was characterized by vigor, diversity and experimentation.