Born in 1933 in Singapore, Tan Choo Kuan was trained in Western Art at Singapore’s Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. A dedicated art teacher and prolific artist, Tan’s legacy was recognised in October 2005 with the Singapore Art Museum’s acquisition of 74 select sketches and drawings on paper completed between 1953 and 2005.This sketch is the most recent of the 14 works made from life models in the collection (the earliest completed in 1993). Titled ‘Happy Contentment’, it is a sketch of a naked woman languidly reclining on her side, stretched out, head propped up in one hand. Characteristic of his style, Tan has outlined the model in bold, incomplete, fluid strokes without shading. However, he has added an internal ‘skeleton’ of fainter, gestural lines. These secondary lines age the model somewhat. Perhaps that is where the happy contentment is derived from – finally feeling comfortable in one’s skin.
