Image size: 178.5 x 167 cm
Born in 1923, Lim Tze Peng is largely a self-taught artist. In his oeuvre, ink paintings and calligraphic works feature prominently, although there is a small number of oils, watercolours and drawings. He created a unique style of ink painting using rich brush and tonal details, and this approach is often regarded as a manifestation of the Nanyang Style in the ink medium. Lim, a school principal until his retirement in the early 1980s, was awarded the Cultural Medallion by the Singapore government in 2003.Since 2000, Lim has produced large format calligraphy works, often written in cursive script, that are bolder and more expressive than his earlier ones. The poem by Yang Shen (1488-1559), recognized as one of the three great scholars of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), appears in the opening chapter of ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, one of the four great Chinese classics.
