Tan Choh Tee

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This is a Chinese name; the family name is Chen (陈).

Tan Choh Tee (陈楚智)
Born	1942 Swatow, Guangdong  China
Nationality	Singaporean
Field	Oil Painting
Training	Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts; art tutelage by Cheong Soo Pieng, Georgette Chen, Liu Kang, Chen Wen Hsi
Movement	Impressionism
Influenced by	Matisse,Pierre Bonnard
Awards	2006: Cultural Medallion Award Asia Art Award, Asia Invitation Arts Exhibition in Seoul, Korea 2005: Creative Visual Art Award, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts 1976: Special Award for National Day Art Exhibition, Ministry of Culture, Singapore 1962: Highly Commended Prize Our Singapore Exhibition By Our Artist, Esso Singapore

Singapore’s second-generation artist Tan Choh Tee (simplified Chinese: 陈楚智; pinyin: Chén Chǔzhì) was hailed as a Matisse of the East by the Singapore Tatler, for his Impressionist-stic styled paintings themed at Singapore landscapes and still life.^[1]

Contents 1 Early Life 2 Nanyang Academy Of Fine Arts 3 Philosophy behind Tan's paintings 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Early Life

Tan was born in Swatow to a goldsmith father who migrated his family to Singapore in the 1950s. As a child, Tan showed early interest in art, but his businessman father did not take his art interest kindly, as the elder Tan expected his young son to learn the family trade and take over the business one day. Tan complied with his wishes and helped his father in the trade, and continued his passion for drawing and painting in his spare time. When he was 13, he found out about the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) and he joined 15 other students in the Sunday art classes at the Academy. When his father died in 1959, Tan enrolled himself in the full-time course at the Academy.^[1]

[edit] Nanyang Academy Of Fine Arts

At the Academy he studied art under the tutelage of pioneer artists such as Cheong Soo Pieng, Georgette Chen, Liu Kang and Chen Wen Hsi. He had also experimented with various painting mediums, and finally chosen oil painting as his life-long choice medium for his artistic expressions. Although many artists find oil painting equipments are more expensive and cumbersome to work with, Tan prides its ability to express depth and volume on canvas, especially when he expresses his emotions when he paints plein-air. Upon his graduation from the Academy in 1962, Tan began his career with as a Book Designer with McGraw Hill Far East, and stayed on with the company for the next 13 years. In 1972, Tan had his first solo exhibition under the encouragement of his artist friends from the Alpha Gallery.^[1]

In his years with McGraw Hill, he found time to continue his passion for painting, as well as attending study tours to Japan in 1973, and People's Republic of China and Vietnam in 1975 ^[2]

In 1976 he left McGraw Hill to become a full-time artist as the old Singapore landscapes he knew, was disappearing fast due to urbanization. Many old shophouses and building were demolished before he could finish painting them and it was important to him to do something about it through his art before they completely disappear.^[1] That very same year, Tan received the Ministry of Culture Special Award at National Day Art Exhibition. It also was the first time that Tan had shown his old Chinatown series of paintings to the art world - a theme that he had deep passions having since lived in the place as a teenager, and that the exotic richness of its environment had continued to left deep imprints in his mind.^[2]

Despite the awards and accreditations life as an artist was difficult, and Tan supplemented his income by giving tuition to a group of students. The additional income helped him continue his work and increasing his exposure through exhibitions. This also gradually helped sales of his paintings by tourists, to major collectors from banks and multinational corporations.^[1]

He also gradually emerged in the 1980s to be known as a prominent painter of Singapore's cityscapes. He accepted a position as a lecturer at the Academy from 1984 – 1987, and was made a Research Fellow of the Oil Painting Masterclass at the Beijing Central Institute of Fine Arts, majoring in oil painting in 1987.^[2]

In spite of his busy schedules in his full-time art career, Tan was invited to numerous study tours to major art facilities and museums in various parts of the world. In 1980 he was sent to study all the major art museums in Europe. 1992 he was again sent on a study tour of major U.S. museums sponsored by Afro Asia Shipping Co. Private Limited, and was admitted to the French Artist's Colony-Cite Internationale des Art to conduct study tours of major museums in Paris in 1998.^[3] In his free time, Tan is out with artist buddies Hou Hsi Ching and Lim Tze Peng for plein-air painting by the Singapore River or roam the streets of old pre-war shophouses in town.^[4]

To date, Tan has held nine solo exhibitions and more than 50 group exhibitions internationally in various parts of the world. In 2005, he was part of the Tsunami Charity Fund Painting Expedition in held Phuket to raise funds for the tsunami victims in Indonesia.

Tan Choh Tee's art studio is currently located at Block 19#02-04, Woking Road in Singapore.

[edit] Philosophy behind Tan's paintings

Tan's masterful display of Singaporean river scenes, reflect not only his years of experience as an oil painter. It also shows his admiration to the works by the Impressionist artists, and those by Matisse and Pierre Bonnard. To him, he saw that the great masters shared in his beliefs that art must not only come from the visual experiences that he has lived through in his life, it is an artist's perogative to capture the fleeting moments of life's many changing moods in their paintings.^[1] These beliefs are aptly demonstrated in his unique individual strokes, colours and lights in his oil painting, and to his insistence on painting plein-air.

In 1987 Tan visited the Dunhuang Caves while attending the Painting Masterclass at the Beijing Central Institute of Fine Arts. He found similarities between the ancient wall paintings done by ancient Chinese painters and Western oil paintings in terms of brush strokes. This new insight inspired new evolution to his oil painting technique with the years that followed after graduation from the Masterclass. Over the years since he returned from China, Tan's brush strokes revealed more and more Chinese painting techniques infused in his oil paintings, creating a new experience for the otherwise traditional painter.^[1]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Art of Tan Choh Tee at [Blogspot.com]