CHEONG, SOO PIENG: - [Catalogue of Cheong's first solo exhibition in Singapore]. Singapore, Straits Commercial Art Co., 1956.

. 4to. (26.4 x 25.4 cm) Pp. (40). With front portrait, six coloured tipped-in plates and many b/w illustrations of reproduced artworks. Text in Chinese and English. Stapled in original boards, illustration pasted on front cover. Covers stained, staples rusted. Internally some minor staining in a few places. Includes an essay about the artist by Michael Sullivan, Art University, University of Malaya, Singapore and two more articles by Ma-Ke and J.A.H. Flak, Organiser of Art at the Ministry of Education in Singapore. Cheong Soo Pieng (1917-83) was a Chinese-born artist, considered as one of Southeast Asia's most significant artists to emerge from the Chinese diaspora after the war. He moved to Singapore in 1946. Cheong was a pioneer of the Nanyang style, an art movement that combined modern European art and Chinese painting traditions. He is mainly known for his distinctive depiction of indigenous people in Malaya and Bali. "The paintings reproduced in these pages are modern and international in technique, Chinese in feeling, and Malayan in subject. Nothing could express, and symbolise, the spirit of modern Malaya more fittingly" (Michael Sullivan). At the same time as this catalogue is published, an exhibition of Cheong's art is being held in Singapore ("Layer by Layer" at the Ngee Ann Kongsi Concourse Gallery, April 5 - September 29, 2024). A rare survivor.