ART AGENDA, S.E.A. X
richard koh fine art
ARTSTAGE SINGAPORE 2018
MODALITIES OF ABSTRACTION SRIHADI SOEDARSONO & YEOH CHOO KUAN
MODALITIES OF ABSTRACTION: SRIHADI SOEDARSONO & YEOH CHOO KUAN
Modalities: attributes and circumstances that denote certain modes or manners. Abstraction: a visual language deploying shapes, forms, colours in compositions that exist with a marked degree of independence from visual references in observable reality. Modalities of abstraction: a certain quality or character that signify departures from visual reality, disintegrating conventional notions of forms and matters such that all our senses respond to various stimuli connected to each other at an aesthetic level. Srihadi Soedarsono’s extensive body of paintings bears an unmistakable spiritual dimension. In particular, his abstract paintings glean the essence of what might be broadly termed the spiritual nature of things, not just anything, but really focused around aspects of nature such as the sea and the beach and Indonesian cultural and ritual life. From as early as the 1960s to the present, he has repeatedly strived to make plain and decipher the superfluous from the intrinsic, the outward manner from the inner character. Abstraction to him is distillation. From a slightly different angle, Yeoh Choo Kuan approaches visible reality. The arena of his exploration is broader: what is in the mind and internalized is sometimes thrust onto canvas - a painterly pantomime; at other times, traces of the body or objects are masked in layers of expressive gesticulations - verisimilitude alluded to. He moves, seemingly effortlessly, between different modes. Abstraction to him is a visual language offering possibilities. Generationally distant and contextually apart, one doesn't expect consanguinity between the two. Yet in art, expect the unexpected. Juxtapositions are made, at times they fall flat, and in other cases, fittingly.
Srihadi Soedarsono (b. 2016) Rock on the Shore oil on canvas 89 x 99 cm Painted in 1966
Yeoh Choo Kuan (b. 1988) Brute Romance oil on canvas 170 x 150 cm Painted in 2017
Srihadi Soedarsono (b. 1931) Seascape oil on canvas 142.5 x 92.5 cm Painted in 1967
Yeoh Choo Kuan (b. 1988) The Bride with White Hair oil and lacquer on linen with wooden frame 143 x 203 cm Painted in 2015
Srihadi Soedarsono (b. 1931) Horizon and the Fishing Boats oil on canvas 100 x 130 cm Painted in 1986
Yeoh Choo Kuan (b. 1988) Man o’ War Warning oil and lacquer on linen 100 x 120 cm Painted in 2017
Yeoh Choo Kuan (b. 1988) Window 9 oil and lacquer on linen, six panels 80 x 60 cm each, 160 x 180 cm Painted in 2017
Yeoh Choo Kuan (b. 1988) Silent Vale oil and lacquer on linen 130 x 158 cm Painted in 2017
ARTSTAGE SINGAPORE 2018 BOOTH A1A 25 – 28 JANUARY 208 MARINA BAY SANDS EXPO & CONVENTION CENTRE LEVEL 1, HALLS A - C