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The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion

Posted: 17 Dec 2011 11:31 PM PST

Paris, the city of love and often, heartbreak, inspires a veteran who thrives on dualism.

TAN TONG paints for his life, not for a living. A veteran and serious artist of 47 years, he does not have a strong collectors' base, unlike some of his peers, who enjoy a more comfortable lifestyle.

But paint he must, if only to occupy his ever restless mind and spirit.

"I need to paint by habit and because of the teeming ideas and creative urges. Besides, it takes my mind off the nagging pain of my illness (a cocktail of skin problems, ulcer, asthma, joint aches). But I get more stressed out when faced with aesthetic cul de sac during painting," he said, running his hand over his platinum blonde head.

Tan Tong's art process is laborious, like solving a mathematical equation based on the Golden Section (Magic Squares). His solidly layered works are a play of contrasts – stylised Neo-Cubist geometric and organic forms, notions of the Chinese art "void" against Western aesthetics, iconic images of Western/Oriental art, culture and history.

At 69, he still keeps a frenetic routine every day, painting on 20x13m canvases, or doing copious drawings and stencilled-out studies of works of Pablo Picasso (1881-1993) revisited and de-Cubicised, Chinese ideograms and the symbolic wiles of Yang Kwei-fei, dubbed the Chinese Cleopatra.

For years, he has been living a life of art, more so since his retirement from the Malaysian Institute of Art (MIA) in 2002 after 26 years. Malaysians will get to see his creative output in Homage To Tan Tong: His Art & Times, which opened in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

His is a story of an artist with a tortured soul, very much like that of Vincent Van Gogh or Eduard Munch. But in his case, it's more because of les afaires du couer (affairs of the heart) – two broken love affairs during the three stages of his Paris student days between 1964 and 1975, and later back home in Malaysia, a failed marriage.

But even in his untutored state when he was in Form Five at Kajang High School, Tan Tong had shown promise in his draughtsmanship, figuratives and colours, like in the 1962 oil pastel, Adik-Beradik.

Then, he won a one-year scholarship to study at the Ecole Nationale Superiuere des Beaux Arts (ENSBA) in Paris, following the Gay Paree footsteps of Lai Foong Moi (1931-94) and Chia Yu-Chian (1936-1991).

Tan Tong landed in hospital from an asthma attack on his first day in Paris in 1964. He recovered and went on to learn figure-drawing during class and spent hours on end copying masterpieces from the Louvre Museum like those by Ingres and Gericault.

Although he did not get a diploma for his efforts because of the French government's policy then, he stayed on – working in a restaurant and touring other parts of Europe, right through the Mai 68 student riots, until the Christmas of 1969.

He sold six works at his solo exhibition at the Foyer des Artistes Galerie in 1967. It was then that he first fell in love, with a Hong Kong-born cashier, but they eventually broke up and he was heart-broken.

Back in Malaysia, the fastidious Frank Sullivan, who had been instrumental in promoting Malaysian art to the world in the early years, gave him a solo exhibition at the Samat Art Gallery, then housed in the AIA building, KL.

Tan Tong returned to Paris in October 1970 on another scholarship, this time for French language studies at the University of Bordeaux. This was when he got to know better the French literary greats like Voltaire, Mallarme, Camus and Sartre. He also learnt the whole spectrum of Chinese literature and culture through the French language.

The course ended in June 1971 and he came home. But not satisfied with not having any art qualifications, he headed for Paris again the following year to re-enrol at the ENSBA, where he studied until 1975. This time he secured diplomas in painting and drawing.

In 1974, a work from Tan Tong's Buddha Eye Series won the La Fondation Rocheron Award. His other major prize was the Consolation Prize (Painting) in the national-level Salon Malaysia, in 1991.

His third Paris stint was a success. But he got intimately and hopelessly involved again, this time with a French girl. When they broke up, he was totally devastated.

"I became gravely ill and physically emaciated. I even contemplated suicide," he confided.

With a broken heart, he decided to return to Malaysia. Sullivan gave him another solo at his gallery, this time located at Loke Yew Mansion in KL.

Tan Tong joinedMIA in 1977 as a registrar cum lecturer. (The institute was then at Jalan Bukit Bintang, before moving into its own premises at Taman Melawati, KL, in 1989.)

Tan Tong married in 1977, but he and his wife eventually parted ways. Before the breakup, they, together with his mother went on a trip to Paris and London in 1983 – his first since his student days.

"I went there not as a tourist but as an old friend of France paying a long overdue visit," he said.

In his memoir written during his student days, he wrote: "It (Paris) was where I had spent my happiest days and also my most miserable moments. One can live in a garret without a centime and yet be happy because it's a tradition to be poor, cold and happy in Paris."

A month-long trip in 1995 enabled him to do research, revisit old haunts, and re-romance his admiration for anything Picasso. The following year, he held a solo at the MIA Gallery in KL, with works on rice-paper and scrolls.

A subsequent visit in 2002 deepened his love, understanding and insights on Picasso's works. He started to deconstruct, or De-Cubicise, Picasso's geometric fragmentation of forms of grotesque shapes, and this eventually led to his landmark exhibition, Homage To Picasso, held at Wisma Soka-Gakkai, KL, in 2006.

Another month-long Europe-wide quest of Picasso's art in 2008 saw him studying the artist's works in museums in Paris, Antibes (France), Madrid, Malaga and Barcelona (Spain), Florence and Pisa (Italy) and Switzerland.

From 1982 to 1993, Tan Tong dabbled with more austere and Minimalist works on dance (ballet, after Degas) and love (his Yin Yang Series).

Between 1997 and 1999, he had a flurry of four exhibitions featuring works from his student years at Space 2324, home of then Goethe-Institut director Gerhard Engelking.

In his early works, he used collages of theatre and transport ticket stubs and postal stamps with drawings and poetry jottings and aphorisms from French literary giants such as Baudelaire, de Balzac and Appollinaire.

There is another important strand to his art, from his visits to China from 2004 particularly along the Silk Route, where he rediscovered Yang Kwei-fei (716-756), a concubine of the Tang emperor. In Tan Tong's art, the vampish Yang sometimes morphed into Picasso's sultry mistress Marie-Therese Walter, and vice versa.

Other favourite devices in his works include the "Thousand Eyes", the I-Ching hexagram, Tao symbolism, printed and written text, the Picasso bull, doves and the minotaur, the Arowana dragon fish, the Flowerhorn, a flying horse with a hoof over a swift and his own puckered lips, as a personal statement.

Homage To Tan Tong: His Art & Times is on at Wisma Kebudayaan Soka-Gakkai Malaysia, KL, till Jan 1, 2012 (11am to 6pm daily). For details, call 03-2144 8686 (Lee Miin Yee).

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Engaging a community

Posted: 17 Dec 2011 11:29 PM PST

WHAT does a tiny fishing community have to do with art?

Well, everything, if you're talking about the Sasaran International Arts Festival, which opened at the obscure fishing village near Kuala Selangor on Dec 8, and ends today.

With over 50 artists from all around the world taking part in the artsfest, one would think that the logistics is being helmed by professional events company.

But, no, this whole project has been undertaken by a motley crew comprising members of the Sasaran Art Association (SAA), headed by artist Ng Bee and the villagers!

Over the last week, the local fishermen, farmers and well-wishers have been supplying seafood, meat, vegetables and drinks daily for the close to 500 organisers, artists, children's camp participants and volunteers involved in the event.

Everyone else from the village has chipped in in one way or another, by donating cash or kind, or lending a hand. Among them, they have taken care of the food, accommodation and transport for the participants, as well as the festival programmes and catalogue.

Some residents even offered their homes to the visiting artists, from Asia and countries like Mongolia, Romania, the United States, Italy and Russia.

SSA is a continuation of the Sasaran International Workshop, first held in 2008 on a shoestring budget. This year, Hai-O has come in as a major sponsor and activities are centred round an Art Performance Camp, art workshops, competitions (children's art and short videos), exhibitions and street performances.

The main venue for the activities is the SJK © Chung Wah in Sasaran. The classrooms have been turned into artists' studios, and some even double as accommodation for participants.

Public installations can be seen all over the place, including a special, newly-built Community Park dedicated to sculptures and installations erected by the artists. On the main road (Jalan Besar), an unused plot has been turned into a Sculpture Garden with materials comprising scrap metal, discarded tyres and car parts.

The artists involved – they had to pay their own passage to Sasaran – were selected and invited through networking at international events and most are established mid-career artists. Yet, they thought nothing of lending their expertise to the festival, in the true spirit of its theme, We ART Together.

Besides Ng Bee, the Malaysians include veteran Long Thien Shih, installation artist Tan Chin Kuan, Chow Chin Chuan, Tang Yeok Khang and members of the DA+C Team.

More importantly, it's amazing seeing the local people, who may not know anything about art, heading to the school to watch the artists at work, or even dipping brushes into paint cans to paint their own mural. Talk about engaging society in art.

For more information on the Sasaran International Arts Festival, visit www.sasaranarts.org or call 019-336 2493 (Tan) or 012-334 3075 (Liu). Works by the participants will be shown at the Shah Alam Art Gallery, Selangor, in March, and Galeri Seni Mutiara, Penang, in July.

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Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Ahad, 18 Disember 2011