작품 상세

Street scenes of Penang heritage buildings are well-known subjects of acclaimed artist Tan Choon Ghee. Two storey terraced shophouses containing elements such as ventilated windows, ceramic air vents, five-foot passageways and handcrafted signage boards are painted with detail. People from the street including the iconic trishaw driver are seen among the artist’s visual record of daily scenes. The place evokes nostalgia and collective memories linked to the shophouse, an important component of the city. Choon Ghee was trained at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Art in Singapore, graduating in 1951, and continued his studies at the Slade School of Art in London, graduating in 1969. After receiving a German Government painting scholarship and an Australian Government TV set design scholarship, he worked for TV Singapore and TV Broadcasting Ltd in Hong Kong. But he gave up a cushy job to go full time into painting at the end of 1967, and never looked back. He was given a retrospective by The Art Gallery Penang in 1992, and a grander one chronicling his works from 1957 to 2000 by the Penang State Art Gallery in 2000.