The world had just finished fighting its second big war — the World War II. The times were certainly bad for trade. It was worse for art.
In Penang, the local population was just about freeing themselves from the atrocities of the occupying Japanese forces. Youngman Chuah Thean Teng, seeing his father’s trading company face the terrible times, opened a batik factory towards the end of the 1940s to do business but it too failed.
Batik was a technique China-born Teng knew well apart from his paint brush and canvas. A compulsive creator, Teng began to experiment with the leftover material to find a new language of art through batik. In 1957, Penang became a part of the Federation of Malaya but by then, hard work and a never say die attitude brought success to Teng’s art. Over the years, he helped Malaysia lift batik to the level of fine art.
Today, 1912-born Teng or Dato as he is popularly known, is considered the father of batik painting in Malaysia. His home city Penang celebrates this feat of him at a museum where a number of his original works share space with many of those he went on to inspire. Teng passed away in 2008.
The Batik Painting Museum has over 80 paintings by 30 artistes who over the years have tried to capture in their canvas shades of local life. As you walk through the three-story museum placed on a narrow lane of the picturesque Armenian Street of Penang, it is the early works of Teng that you come across first. Say his “Bullock Cart” (1950). A proof of incredible creativity, the art work on cloth takes batik to a different level by focussing on the details, the lines and the colour play. A contrast to this painting is his “In The Art Studio” where simple lines mark the artwork, also on cloth.
As you move on, his art work too moves to the next decade, includes some other remarkable works like “Combing Hair” and “Women at Work” (1960s). The intricate patterns on the sarongs of his figures in these paintings, the clear lines that outline them, the bright hues that adorn the artworks, make you look at them in awe.
Alongside his works are some of Yusoff Abdullah’s, one of the early artistes to have learnt from Teng. Abdullah was from Kelantan, one of the three prominent regions of Malaysia particularly known for batik work. He passed on the art to his student Khalil Ibrahim who in turn taught Ismail Mat Hussien and Sea Kim Joo, all of whose works are on display at the Museum. Also featured are some works of Teng’s contemporary, Singaporean artiste Cheong Soo Pieng. Cheong’s “Seated Man” is particularly eye catching.
A visitor also gets to see the technique of pointillism used by some batik artistes. Toya’s 1960s works, “Beach” and “Goats” are fine examples of it.
Teng too used pointillism. In fact, his first batik painting was a self-portrait where he used the pointillist technique, a work that got him noticed. The story goes that Teng showed his early works to art enthusiasts, Lim Kee Liang and his wife Patricia, of the Penang Library. The couple, together with a professor from the University of Singapore and the British Council, helped Teng put up his first exhibition of batik paintings at the Penang Library in 1955 under the auspices of the Penang Arts Council. A prolific painter, Teng took 100 of his works for another exhibition in Singapore the next year. On noticing the success of these exhibitions, the Government sponsored Teng’s exhibition at the Commonwealth Institute of Art, London in 1959. It was for the first time that the Government sponsored a Malayan artist abroad. After Teng’s debut in the West, his career took an upward surge. Not just his batik paintings got attention but the works he did in other mediums did too, such as those on oil, gouache, woodcuts, mixed media and the sculptures.
Teng’s works, particularly in batik, is known for adding exaggeration. Heads tilted towards the right, small heads added to big bodies, elongated figures in movement, etc. are some of the features that comprise his signature style. You can see these in his “Mother and Child and Cat”, “Mother and Child in Abstract” among others.
The museum also has an international section too where it displays works of well-known artistes of the genre from Indonesia, China and Thailand.
(Batik Painting Museum, Penang, is on 19, Armenian Street. It opens daily from10 A.M. to 6P.M. Entry fee: 10 ringgit (Rs: 170) per person)
