Image size: (w/o paper backing) 76.5 x 56.0 cm
Tay Bak Koi (b. 1939; d. 2003) is most well-known for his tranquil scenes of roaming buffaloes, fishing villages and kampongs. Born in Singapore, the artist enrolled at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts from 1957 to 1960. While there, he studied under Cheong Soo Pieng and Georgette Chen. Cheong, in particular, encouraged him to experiment and challenge conventional art forms. Although Tay had to earn his livelihood assisting his father, who sold seafood at the market, Tay continued to hone his skills in oil and watercolour painting and sought to develop his own distinctive style. As a result, his oeuvre spans both figuration and abstraction across works in oil, watercolour and ink, demonstrating his mastery of the mediums. Untitled (’64 series 3) is one of the earliest examples of the artist’s abstract works without direct reference to representational forms. Pigment is applied both broadly in washes and vigorously in vertical and horizontal directions, demonstrating Tay’s interests in free expressive brushwork and in experimenting with different applications of ink.
