Object size: 38.2 x 28.0 cm
A founding member of the Modern Art Society, Tan Yee Hong (1932- 2003) took part in exhibitions across Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan from the 1950s to 1980s. These scraperboard works by Tan comprise a mixture of landscapes and figures as subjects, drawn from his travels around Malaya. They demonstrate the use of an alternative medium that produced a stark image similar to those made using woodblock printing, a medium that was popular with artists in Singapore during the 1950s for its economical costs and relatively quick production time. Able to render images cheaply, quickly and expressively, woodcuts have close ties to social realist expressions that proliferated in pre-independent Singapore. By scoring numerous carefully placed white lines on a coat of black india ink, figures and landscapes from around Malaya are thrown into dramatic light and shade. Unlike woodblock prints however, scraperboard works would produce a single image as opposed to multiples. Nevertheless, the graphic quality of these finished scraperboard works meant that they would be easily transferred to print media. Five of these seven works have publication histories in Xin Zhou Ri Bao （星洲日报）and Nanyang Siang Pau （南洋商报）, demonstrating how they circulated as images during the period.
