Image size: (canvas) 65.7 x 47.6 cm
Born in Kelantan in 1939, the artist Lee Sik Khoon relocated to Singapore and attended the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts from 1959 to 1962. Lee was associated with the Ten-Men Art Group, a loosely formed group of artists, which devoted themselves to organizing painting expeditions in Southeast Asia, searching for invigorating visual and cultural sources for their work, as well as exhibitions around these trips. Together with others such as Ng Eng Teng, Thomas Yeo, and Tan Teo Kwang, Lee was part of a generation of artists who advanced their art studies in the United Kingdom during the early 1960s. Lee pursued his art studies in graphic art in Hornsey College of Arts and Crafts from 1962 to 1963, and with the encouragement of Ng Eng Teng, pursued painting at Stoke-on-Trent College of Art and Crafts from 1962 to 1967. During his time overseas, Lee kept a close network of friends and teachers from Singapore including his NAFA teacher Cheong Soo Pieng and contemporaries like Tan Teo Kwang and Mak Kum Siew. Lee attended the first two painting expeditions organised by the Ten-Men Art Group, to Trengganu, Malaysia in 1961 and Java and Bali in 1962. “Seated Balinese Girl” was painted during the latter expedition. It demonstrates Lee’s abstract treatment in translating environmental conditions and subjects into painting, using heavy and thick application of oil to evoke his surroundings and subject matter, while patterned chromatic strokes fill in the background. These travels around Southeast Asia were productive ventures for Lee, who felt his sense of observation were sharpened through immersing himself in new environs.
