By Ooi Kok Chuen.

The question whether artistic talent is natural or nurtured cannot be answered by looking at the Chuah family. Patriarch Chuah Thean Teng, famous for creating the genre of Batik Painting, died two years ago at the age of 96, leaving behind children and grandchildren, many of whom are artists in their own right. Art was too much a part of their milieu for anyone to know where natural talent ends and where social encouragement begins.

DATUK CHUAH THEAN TENG, known as Teng (Senior) was Malaysia’s only artist acknowledged to have started a world art form, Batik Painting. He passed away in 2008.

For a long time, the running of the art and antiques business at Teng’s Yahong Art Gallery (established 1976) has been left very much to his three sons – Siew Teng (born 1944, and henceforth to be referred to as S Teng, the “S” denoting “Small”), Seow Keng (born 1945) and Choy Siew Kek (born 1946). His three sons are also artists in their own right, all having been in it full time for a long time.

Art-wise, the senior Teng (1912–2008) was able to set astonishing standards even in his later years and despite increasing old-age ailments. As long as he was physically present, he inadvertently cast a long “oppressive” shadow over the art ambitions of his sons.

While the sons bowed in deference to the patriarch for his legendary wit and charm, with his art greatly imbued with the innocence and alacrity of the age (Teng’s), all three did find it tough striking out on their own to fi nd their own place in an already crowded field.

With Teng still able to excel with advancing new textural or pictorial idioms, the sons found it hard to push the parameters. This is not an excuse or any reflection on the indubitable talents of the siblings. It’s just that Teng’s reputation was too formidable and his legacy too far-reaching.

“Most of the time, when the news media visited our gallery, they were only interested in interviewing my father,” says Seow Keng, nevertheless hinting that playing “bridesmaid” was something they didn’t mind.

The dilemma is best summed up by S Teng in an earlier interview in 2004: “Like it or not, people always compare our work with our father’s. If we follow his style, people brand us as copycats. If we stray too dramatically away from his, we are guilty of ignoring something for which he has been universally acclaimed.”

There is another generation coming up; Seong Hooi (born 1974) and Seong Leng (born 1976), whom although trained in business studies, have also gone full time into art. Canadian-trained Seong Hooi is the eldest of two sons of S Teng, while Australian-trained Seong Leng is the only son of Seow Keng, who also has two daughters. Seong Leng has also set up an upper-floor shoplot at BB Park in Kuala Lumpur under the Yahong banner.

All three generations of the Chuahs had their first exhibitions together outside Yahong in Petaling Jaya, which was sponsored by Siemens Malaysia, and in Shenzhen in China. But batik innovations are not only the preserve of the House of Teng. Major rivals are Seah Kim Joo (now a Singaporean, known for his batik  collage), Toya aka Lim Khoon Hock (pointillist batik simulating Seurat’s divisionist imagery), Lee Kian Seng (“superimposed” imagery such as in his Soul and Form Series), Fatimah Chik (Nusantara block prints), Khalil Ibrahim (batik collage), Koay Soo Kau (Nusantara-motif batik) and Ismail Mat Hussein (fi guratives and distinctive colours).

Batik once had the stigma of fading colours, but technological innovations have now made it worthwhile to pursue and push the boundaries of the art.

At the House of Teng, the batik art is like a family preserve, with its secrets of stock iconography, pattern template and colour schematics. The family has almost arrogated the stylised rural life theme as its trademark, with its rhythmic patterns, spatial depth and elegant outlines.

As the family artists work together in the same inner sanctum “workshop” space, it may sometimes be difficult to conclusively tell for sure which is whose at first. It’s just like pupils of the 17th Century Dutch artists Rembrandt and Jan Lievens, for instance, who would bear the characteristics and curious strokes of their respective masters.

Papa Teng also has two daughters, Geh Hua and Geh Bee, who are based in the US, and not into batik painting, although one of them runs an art gallery in San Diego called Eva Chan Gallery.

The big difference between Teng and his sons is the epochs in which they lived/live. It shows, in the more elegantly rounded organic forms which are more fulsome, and in the intimate gestures among the painted figures who oft en loom large like in Gauguin’s paintings. Teng’s time was one of idyllic laid-back innocence and charming simplicity and the feelings were naturally romanticised and sentimental. But there is also a latent quiet energy in the works.

His sons’ time is that of a constant antagonistic and rapid urbanisation. Their style is also more modern, even in the choice of subjects. They have, after all, had the privilege of formal art education, unlike their father, who was self-taught.

Teng had a tough life which saw him surviving various tribulations, while S Teng and Seow Keng lived relatively sheltered, even cushy lives. All joined the family business after graduating, and never had to test their mettle in the open-job market.

So, who among the three sons is the new artstandard-bearer in the House of Teng?

S Teng and Seow Keng are equally matched in terms of accomplishments, versatility, skills, track record and output.

S Teng’s first solo, of batik paintings, was at the Lower Gallery in London in 1967 while Seow Keng had his in Fuchu, Tachikawa and Tokyo in Japan in 1973.

Siew Kek, whose range of subjects is more limited to floralscapes, seems to be also inclined towards the literary field. He was trained at the South German Plastic Institute in Wurzburg in 1972–74, the same place Seow Keng graduated from in 1970, but he specialises in fibreglass sculpture.

S Teng was trained first in graphic design at the Ravensburne College of Art in Kent (1966) and then the City and Art Guild School in London (1966–1969), when Roger de Gray was the principal.

He was already winning awards at school and in National Art Gallery competitions even before he received any formal art education.

Like their illustrious father, the three siblings have had their batik paintings selected to adorn Unicef greeting cards; S. Teng for Th e Monkey (1992), Seow Keng for Fish and Rural Life (both 1988), and Siew Kek for Orchid (1993).

In batik, S. Teng and Seow Keng seem to have forged a yin-yang kind of complementary dissonance. S. Teng’s works are more gestural and spontaneous and he also flexes his portraiture skills onto the batik medium, and is able to combine fluid stains of colours, albeit with a limited palette, with dextrous abstract play. Seow Keng is more methodical, and his works are more architectonic or built on a multiple-cell microcosm of concerted community activity, as in his large works Joy of Living (272cm x 132cm) and Joy of Sharing (91cm x 183cm). His affinity for cockerels, which is his Chinese zodiac sign, is found in various media and is matched by his fondness for other domestic animals such as goats, cows and geese. His works are also noted for the crimson sun.

The brothers’ treatment of Thaipusam pits them in interesting comparison. Seow Keng’s kavadi carriers hug the top portion, taking a more central position while S. Teng’s kavadi carrier with the “peacock-wing” spiky cage is shunted to the left, sharing the spotlight with a group of women engrossed in conversation.

S Teng’s work, like most, is also imbued with a subtle symbolism. While both play with a kind of abstract backdrop, S. Teng favours a more marbling effect with stain-like overlaps and with shaft s of light and an amorphous feel, while Seow Keng goes for a confetti of dimpled colours with streaks of mock drips.

Both are also adept in Chinese brush painting on rice paper, oils and watercolours.

S Teng’s grounding in printmaking also shows up in the way he handles overlapping layers, while his oils on buildings such as the Khoo Kongsi and Indian temples reveal his sound draughtsmanship. Seow Keng is also adept at fibreglass sculptures, making relief mural commissions for Bank Negara Penang (bank crest) and the then Malaysia-Singapore Airways for its offices in Ipoh and Penang, and it is not surprising that his works sometimes exude a relief-like quality.

At the first Henry Butcher Art Auction Malaysia on Aug 8, 2010, Seow Keng’s 2002 mosaic-image batik, Rural Life, fetched a premium of RM18,150. His father’s work, Mother With Children sold for an RM114,400 premium. Seow Keng also boasts of having one of his batiks, on cats, being collected by Hollywood actress Jane Seymour.

With both having many strong points, S. Teng and Seow Keng seem set not only to uphold the family tradition in batik painting but also strike out with their own styles and identity. Both are already in their 60s and they have in their own ways shown their capacity to be either a solo stellar act or a combined twin assault.

** Republished with permission. This article first appeared in the September 2010 issue of the Penang Economic Monthly. Ooi Kok Chuen has been writing on the art scene at home and abroad for 28 years.

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