Details
CollectionSouth & Southeast Asian Collection
Object numberS1980-0848-001-0
TitlePounding Rice
DescriptionThree female figures with bare upper torsos and clad in "sarongs" , are pounding rice. All of them are standing and holding a long pole as pounders. A pig and a pineapple plant appear in the foreground. The colours are vivid and contrasting forms are out.“Pounding Rice’, 1953, by Cheong Soo Pieng and ‘Dance’, 1954, by Chen Wen Hsi are complex works. Each is preoccupied with the female figure; in each picture, figures are presented in compact groups and depicted as performing coordinated actions. In Pounding Rice, three bare-breasted, standing female figures are shown husking rice; Soo Pieng developed a repertoire of figurative forms which was extremely influential for younger arts. The female figure in this picture was consolidated after his journey to Bali in 1952 (with Chen Chong Swee, Wen Hsi and Lui Kang). A close viewing shows an intricate weaving of components in the picture into connected patterns of rhythmic lines. In ‘Dance’, the figures turn deliberately, presenting a variety of viewpoints, each connecting with another, producing a sensation of linked movements. The figures are wedged into one another; these planes are subsequently developed and articulated as schemes of abstraction in Wen Hsi’s later pictures.” (Past, Present , Beyond: Re-nascence of an Art Collection, Page 63)Pounding rice was made a year after Cheong Soo Pieng's first painting trip to Bali in 1952 with Chen Wen Hsi, Liu Kang and Chen Chong Swee. The following year, the four friends held a joint exhibition of works painted during the trip. Liu contributed an essay in the exhibition catalogue in which he called Bali the "last Paradise", and wrote that the four had made the "pilgrimage" to Bali "in the hope of ridding ourselves of the fatigue of city-life, trying to retrieve our childhood innocence and to gather fresh and interesting motifs for our work". Among the aspects of Bali that captured the artists' imagination were the womanfolk. In his 1953 account of their trip, Liu Kang made references to them and exotic novelty of the women's uncovered breasts, as did Chen Chong Swee in his own writings. Cheong Soo Pieng's painting depicts three Balinese ladies at their domestic chores. In this highly stylised painting, physical elements simplified and abstractly rendered. Forms are outlined and treated as flat planes of pure colour albeit the secondary play of tonal nuances that allude to three-dimensional surface contours. Primacy is given to decorative values. Colours are exaggerated in vivid hues dominated by warm colours set against cool highlights. In subject matter and style, the work has come to stand for certain aspects of the Nanyang style. Yet the Nanyang style is still seemingly illusive. Other works in this section of the exhibition will contrast greatly in style to Pounding Rice but still seen as a work in the Nanyang style. The question to ask is whether it is possible to encapsulate and describe the Nanyang style through a representative set of paintings.
Production placeSingapore
Production date 1953
Object categoryPainting
MaterialOil on canvas
Dimensions
H: 93 cm
L: 78 cm
L: 78 cm
