Frame size: 121.0 x 156.0 x 4.5 cm,
Image size: 66.0 x 102.0 cm
Chen Cheng Mei was born in 1927 in Singapore, and was trained at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) from 1949 to 1954 where one of her primary teachers was Cheong Soo Pieng. Working for a time as a French Language translator in a Bank, she took leave from her job to spearhead alongside artist Yeh Chi Wei the loose Ten Men Art Group that travelled to various parts of Southeast Asia including Malaysia, Brunei, Bali, Java, Thailand and Cambodia. Chen also undertook trips by herself further afield to Canada, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Kenya, China, India, and Sri Lanka. Travel was an integral part of Chen’s artistic process and practice as she accumulated numerous sketches and photographs from her trips. This work painted in 1974 is a rare example of Chen’s experimentation with geometric abstraction. Playing with the repetition of rhombus forms outlined cleanly in black, and in stark contrast against a yellow background, the compositional simplicity belies the myriad of optical variations that cause the squares to appear simultaneously receding and protruding from the central point in the middle of the canvas. Chen’s choice to bisect the painting with a S-shaped curve disrupts the straight-edged regularity of the black lines and the application of a tan shade in the left side of the composition achieves a suggestion of both depth and flatness. The intriguing composition raises the question of cohesion and juxtaposition, and challenges any single perspective or reading of the artwork. In doing so, the work demonstrates Chen’s keen sensitivity and awareness of composition and colour, and reveals further insight into the use of flatness and contrast across both her abstract and figurative works.
