Image size: 137 x 69 cm
Born Tan Tiow Phuang (1911-1983) in Singapore, Dr Tan Tsze Chor went to China at age four for his education and returned at 17. A successful businessman known in the region as the ‘pepper king’, he was an avid collector of Chinese art and a philanthropist who donated money and artworks to various institutions, including the University of Malaya (now National University of Singapore) and the Singapore Art Society.Writing in his unique style which combines the seal, regular, running and cursive scripts in a single calligraphy, Tan’s maturity and confidence is clearly evident here. In this colophon for a painting of Qi Baishi (1864-1957), a prominent artist in 20th-century China, Tan’s writing is more expressive and less restricted than in earlier works.