Details
CollectionSouth & Southeast Asian Collection
Object numberS1980-0583-001-0
TitleKampong (Village)
CreatorChen Chong Swee
DescriptionKampong (Village) exemplifies Chen’s early endeavours towards local imageries in the Chinese ink and brush landscape format. In 1952, Chen accompanied Chen, Liu and Cheong, on a painting trip to Bali. The trip proved to be an important one as it surfaced Bali as a source for imaging the Nanyang.
“In ‘Kampung’ (Village), 1968, Chen Chong swee transfers a scheme from Chinese pictorial tradition to the region of Southeast Asia, adapting and making it hospitable to new, different pictorial content. A village of thatch-roofed houses connected by raided walkways and coconut palms, nestles in a river valley. It is sited in the middle distance; we see it from an elevated position; the village is set in a deep, rolling mountain landscape. The village by the sea or river, ringed by coconut palms becomes a leitmotif in paintings of landscape developed in the fifties, Chong Swee sutures this motif with a received scheme for landscape from the Chinese tradition, producing a hybrid form.” (Past, Present , Beyond: Re-nascence of an Art Collection, Page 62 - 63)A Malaysian landscape treated realistically as a typical Chinese scroll painting. Chen Chong Swee, an accomplished Chinese landscape painter and a reputable Western style watercolourist, painted indigenous scenes of South-East Asian countries in the manner of the Chinese hanging scroll with Western realism
Production placeSingapore
Production date 1949
Object categoryChinese Painting, Painting
MaterialChinese Ink and Colour on Fabric, Chinese Ink, Ink, Fabric
Dimensions
H: 143 cm
L: 68.5 cm
H: 187 cm
L: 82 cm
L: 68.5 cm
H: 187 cm
L: 82 cm

