Top 5 Most Expensive Paintings Of World

154 days ago by Ashutosh Tyagi 1

Many people asks what is in these expensive paintings, or why is this painting so expensive? Some ask why people buy such paintings and waste their money? And so many things. But the people who knows the real reason of any painting, says from where the painting got the feeling. Painting is a way to express feelings of heart, a way to even unburden heart’s load, tension and other problems surrounding heart.
But what actually these paintings tell us, what does they actually meant to. Paintings are not just what they are made, they are also to understand the internal feeling and meaning of painter. And when those paintings got their meaning they are among us all, either through exhibition or auction.
Here some of those sold paintings, which are in most expensive paintings of world.

The Card Players-top in expensive paintings

The Card Players($259 million)
Paul Cezanne’s series of oil painting has many paintings showing different behavior of man. But this painting make its position in most expensive paintings. in the series of the paintings all were depicting same thing, man smoking pipe and playing cards. All are concentrated in their cards having eyes bowed.
This painting was recently showed in joint exhibition at New York. The exhibition ran from 21 October 2010 to 16 January 2011 and in New York from 9 February 2011 to 8 May 2011.

No. 5, 1948-second in expensive paintings

No. 5, 1948($160.8 million)
Jackson Pollock, american painter known for abstract paintings, as the creator of this painting. This painting was made on fiberboard. Thick oil drops of brown and yellow paint, and making a nest like appearance on 8′ x 4′ sheet. It was displayed in 2006 before auction at the museum of Modern Art. And this paining was sold by David Geffen to David Martinez privately, which makes it in most expensive paintings.

Woman III-third in most expensive paintings

Woman III($ 137.5 million)
One of the series of six paintings having theme of woman, this painting was made by abstract painter Willem de Kooning. It was made between 1951 and 1953, which measures 68′ x 48 ^1/2‘ (1.7 m by 1.23 m). It was in collection of Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, but was strict to show after the revolution in 1979. Recently, in November 2007, it was sold by Geffen To Steven A. Cohen, recorder in most expensive paintings as third.

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I-fourth in expensive paintings

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I($ 154 million)
This painting was made by Gustav Klimt in 1907, and it is 138 x 138 cm painting of gold, silver and oil on canvas. Klimt took three years to complete this painting. It depicts the beauty of ornamentation of woman, and was traditional of that time. This was painted in Vienna and financed by Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. This painting was of Adele Bloch-Bauer, who in her will donate the painting to Austrian State Gallery. Maria Altmann became the rightful owner in 2006 officially. And that time it firstly came in display on June 2006, and was sold in November 2006 at Christie’s in New York.

Portrait of Dr. Gachet -fifth in most expensive paintings

Portrait of Dr. Gachet($ 147 million)
Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh made this painting as a tribute to Dr. Paul Gachet, who took care of him in his last months of life. This painting was made in two versions, one having multiple colors shade and other having a single shade of colors. Both were made in June 1890 at Auvers, and shows the same thing. In painting Dr. Gachet is sitting, leaning over his right hand on a table having red cover, and two yellow books nearby with a medicinal herb foxglove on table. Its first version was sold at New York in 1990, and was recorder as highest paid painting at that time.

Read more http://most-expensive-luxury.com/2013/02/27/top-5-most-expensive-paintings-of-world/

How To Buy And Sell Art for a profit.

Above: Example Investment Art: This painting by Herman Herzog (1832-1932) is representative of "Investment Art." Herman Herzog (American/German) is a painter of considerable accomplishment, and any oil painting by him, in good to excellent condition, is highly sought after, and will always increase in value. This painting, "Cows in a Pennsylvania Landscape," might fetch $10,000 at auction. A painting by Herman Herzog in a "Mountain Landscape," for which he is best known, could be worth $20,000, and one of his rare Florida landscape could even be worth $50,000. Herman Herzog meets our criteria for "Investment Art."

by: Ron Davis

As seen in Antiques & Art Around Florida, Winter/Spring 2006

Investing in art is not a get-rich quick scheme. But for many people, buying and selling art is more lucrative than other investments, and many have built a solid, growing, and rewarding business in art.

THE THREE BUYERS OF ART

First, decide what roll you want to play, whether you want to be an Art Collector, Investor, or Dealer, because each has a different motivation, buying and selling strategy, and outcome objective. The collector buys what he likes, the investor what he needs, and the dealer what he can sell for the highest price in the shortest amount of time. Each needs to follow the strict buying criteria outlined below.

The Collector

has a love for art but not a compelling schedule to buy it. He buys only what pleases him, without regard for "what’s hot," possibly buying only one painting a year. The collector has no exit strategy or financial objective in mind when he buys art. He well might keep a painting all his life, willing it to his children or a museum. The art he buys, however, should create future wealth for his family. The collector also needs to acquire art knowledge and competent buying skills so he is not taken advantage of. Serious collectors usually have a focus and narrow interest in a particular School. Always studying art they like, collectors often become "subject experts" in their specialty.

The Investor

definitely has an exit strategy and outcome objective in mind when he buys art. Developing a financial plan, the Investor buys art strategically, according to the strict criteria listed below, doing extensive research to eliminate risks associated with buying art. The Investor’s time frame is five to seven years out. A weak economy will peak again in five to seven years. Even an unfresh painting (recently bought at public auction, or one "shopped around") will be fresh again in five to seven years. The investor buys what collectors desire, insuring him of a quick sale when it’s time to cash in. The Investor expects 25% ROI, but even higher returns can be made with art.

The Dealer’s

business is buying and selling paintings, and brokering art transactions. Like any business owner, the dealer is on the telephone every day talking with customer and suppliers: collectors, investors, galleries, auction rooms, and other dealers. When an exceptional painting comes to market, the dealer pursues it relentlessly. The dealer’s time frame is measured in days or weeks, rarely months, generally selling at the highest price in the shortest amount of time. Because he buys only "investment art," there is always a demand for his paintings. If you’re a "seller," on the other hand, selling art to a dealer can be an expensive proposition, because he’ll only resell your painting right away, to a collector, investor, or gallery, for a handsome profit, exactly what you could have done, if you only knew what the dealer knows. So it behooves the collector to learn the parallel skills of an art dealer.

Example Decorative Art: This painting by J.K. Butler, dated 1939, is an excellent example of decorative art. J.K. Butler is an "unlisted artist" -- a virtual nobody, but his work is excellent, and very reminiscent of John F. Carlson’s work: "Snow Scenes in an Interior Forest." If this painting were indeed by John F. Carlson, it could easily be worth $10,000; however, since the painting is by J.K. Butler, it might be worth $500; $1,000 at the most. Decorative art is not a wise investment choice. If you like it, fine, keep it; but it will never grow in value like investment art.

THREE KINDS OF ART AVAILABLE TO BUY

Decorative Art

is known as "furnishing pictures," and is often used for decorating purposes. This classification of art is generally thematic: "nautical," "country," "sporting" look, etc. Little intrinsic value exists in decorative art, and rarely is it painted by a "listed" artist. But distinctive decorative art can be expensive, especially if it’s antique. Decorative art will not increase in value. Therefore, it is not a wise investment choice. If you buy, for example, 100 $200-paintings, you could have $20,000 invested in "garage sale" merchandise. Avoid that mistake. Limit your "training paintings" to ten or fewer. Better yet, buy Investment Art.

Collectable Art

suggests that someone else also collects the same artworks. Therefore, a market already exists for your painting, albeit small. Collectable art can either be signed or unsigned, "listed" or "unlisted" (recorded in auction price guides). But generally it is of modest quality, not superior work, and not a good investment choice. For example, Florida Highwaymen Art, painted by itinerant Afro-American artists in the 1960s, is "hot" merchandise in Florida, and many local dealers buy and sell this art for a profit. Its appeal, however, is limited to Florida. Therefore it’s Regional Art, and would not sell well in the art capitals of the world. The quality of this art generally is "student work," not academic or professional. If a Highwaymen painting is accidentally left on a park bench, for example, in Paris, London, or Cincinnati, it probably will still be there three weeks later. Discerning art collectors and investors would not show interest in this art. Don’t hold onto collectable art thinking it will one day grow into "investment art." It won’t! Sell it. Move on. If you like the picture, however, and it’s affordable, fine, keep it for whatever is charming about it. But it will not be a wise long-term investment.

Investment Art

will always increase in value. High caliber, well-listed artists generally create investment quality paintings. Sought by collectors, investors, and dealers, investment art appeals to buyers beyond the state or local region, meeting national and international demand. Connoisseurs, experts, and art historians determine the quality standards for investment art. Therefore, if you own investment art, it can easily be sold for a profit. If investment art is ever lost, the finder essentially holds a bearer instrument—the equivalent of cash. A metropolitan radio station once reported a Picasso artwork was lost—accidentally left on a New York City subway. Can you imagine? The radio station asked the finder of the artwork to call the police. Hello. Leaving a painting by Picasso on a New York City train is like leaving a bag with a million dollars cash in it on a park bench. Forget it!

WHY IS ART VALUABLE?

Investment art is valuable for three reasons: (1) superior quality, (2) rarity, and (3) scarcity. Some people who deem scarcity as prize-worthy, are willing to pay an exorbitant price for the last anything on earth that someone else wants, needs, or admires. You might have heard, they stopped making 19^th century art more than one hundred years ago. It’s like waterfront property, it isn’t made any more, which is why it cost 10 times more than rural farmland. If you’re lucky enough to own a rare painting, say one of a kind, well, that artwork can be near priceless.

There is more money in the world than great paintings

, so a competition will always exist for superior artworks. Quality in art has absolute standards. Exceptional art has a master’s touch. It’s a gift. Few artists possess or develop such extraordinary skill and talent. Hence, the expression, "a stroke of genius," could well refer to the brushwork and technique of a great artist.

Recognizing quality in art takes time. It’s best learned with the help of an expert or mentor. Unless you understand "value" in art (or anything else), it’s impossible to understand opportunity. And to understand value, you have looked at hundreds, even thousands of paintings. Learning about art is lifelong. When you arrive at the threshold of connoisseurship, and can see art at a gut-level, you’re ready to begin buying and selling art for a profit.

WHICH SUBJECTS ARE BEST?

Notwithstanding the exception to every rule: horizontal pictures are better than vertical ones. Paintings of girls are more desirable than pictures of boys. Landscapes are more valuable than seascapes. Life-pictures are more valuable than death scenes. Domestic animals are more appealing than wild animals. Organic still lifes are more valuable than inanimate pictures. More is better than less, with fruit, flowers, and fish etc. Thick paint (impasto) is better than thin paint (dry brush). Bright colors are better than soft tones. Remember, religious pictures are hard to sell, unless an Old Master, or executed by well-known artists. Full size paintings (24" X 36") are better than small or medium size pictures. Experimental themes are not as valuable as paintings from an artist’s main body of work (oeuvre). For example, Thomas Moran’s paintings of Yellowstone and the Grand Teton Mountains are more valuable than his paintings of India and Venice. A masculine face on a woman dressed in satin and lace will have little chance of fetching a good price at auction. Cheerful subjects, such as kittens pawing a ball of string, goldfish swimming in a bowl, or children chasing fireflies on a summer evening are highly desired subjects, and form a generally safe buying guide.

Example Collectable Art: This painting by C. Gordon Harris (b 1891- ) is an example of Collectable Art. C. Gordon Harris is mostly known as a New England artist, and his work has regional interest, but not much "national" interest, and no "international" demand. C. Gordon Harris is a "listed artist," but of minor stature. Generally, his oil paintings, in good condition, sell from $1,000 to $3,000. This one, titled on the reverse: "Summer Morning, Lincoln, Rhode Island," might fetch $5,000, because it can be traced to a specific location in Rhode Island, and a collector there might pay top dollar: $5,000. While local and regional art is considered "Collectable Art," it is not a wise investment choice, and Collectable Art will never grow in value like Investment Art.

WHO SUPPLIES ART?

Serious buyers of art develop "relationships" with Knockers, Pickers, Dealers, Galleries, and Auction Rooms. 80 % of all art moves from dealer to dealer, each tagging on a profit. Eventually most art winds up on a collector’s wall, usually at the highest price. You can feed off the bottom or fish at the top, but you want to buy at the beginning of the art chain, or as close to it as possible. Knockers "knock" on house doors. Taking off their hat, they ask, "Do you have any art or antiques to sell?" It’s a dying trade, but when practiced can produce sterling results. Pickers buy an old chair for $10 in an antique shop, then drive five miles down the turnpike and sell it for $15. Picking up another item, down the highway they go. In a week’s time, an experienced Picker will comb an entire region, often finding valuable works of art for select customers. Make sure he knows what you’re looking for. Pickers know which dealers to sell to. Low-end dealers generally sell to high-end dealers, usually at a low price. More experienced dealers "sell up," to collectors, investors, galleries, even museums, usually for top dollar. Galleries have traditionally sold the best of art, at the highest prices, to wealthy patrons. Such art generally comes with a documented provenance, bells and whistles, and free viewing rooms, but it’s very expensive. Today, smart dealers working off their kitchen table can compete with renowned galleries for the same customers and the same valuable artworks. Remember, auction rooms offer great opportunities to buy and sell art. You must learn which Rooms to buy from and which to sell to, and how to find "winners" in trade papers, such as The Maine Antique Digest, or The Newtown Bee, available in most chain bookstores. From these papers and select art magazines you can harvest names and telephone numbers of serious art collectors and dealers who will become your future customers and suppliers. To buy and sell art successfully, you must develop contacts and build relationships.

25/25/50 Rule

Remember this rule, because it applies whether you’re an engineer, teacher, or art dealer: 25% of your success will come from your knowledge. 25% of your success will come from your skills. And 50% of your success will come from your relationships. Develop these attributes.

BUYING ART STRATEGICALLY

The below buying criteria will help establish standards for buying investment quality art, thereby assuring you of a profitable outcome.

Buy

·

only original paintings; signed and dated by the artist.

·

only listed artists with multiple auction records.

·

paintings by artists who produced a prodigious body of work in their lifetime, e.g., more than 200 paintings.

·

works by artists who had major exhibitions and shows in their lifetime, e.g., The British Royal Academy, The Paris Salon, The National Academy of Design.

·

artworks by artists whose School of art remains highly collected and in demand, e.g., Hudson River School, Brandywine School, California Impressionist School.

·

representative examples of an artist’s central theme paintings (oeuvre); for example, Thomas Moran’s Grand Canyon scenes, not his Venice or India pictures.

·

subjects that other people collect and invest in, e.g., children at play, women under parasols, genre pictures, mountain and vista landscapes.

·

examples that are fresh and new to the market (have not recently been at auction, or "shopped around").

·

representative paintings of an artist’s highest quality.

·

large size paintings, 24" X 36", but generally not larger than 60 inches on any side.

·

examples that are in good to excellent condition.

·

paintings with an authenticated well-documented provenance.

·

art works that come with a free title, bill of sale, and a guarantee.

·

unsigned paintings that are outstanding (if reasonably priced), especially if accompanied by firm attribution from a renowned specialty scholar.

Make a Deal, Don’t Be Shy

If you’ve found a painting you like, in good to excellent condition, in a School of art that is appreciating, fairly priced, you’ve done your research and due diligence, and it’s affordable, buy it! Enjoy your painting for its beauty and financially for its profit appreciation for years to come.

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About the author:For more information on Buying and Selling Art, including workshops on this subject, see Ron Davis’ new book, Art Dealer’s Field Guide: How to Profit in Art, Buying and Selling Valuable Paintings. Available for $19.95 in most bookstores, or by calling: 1-888-401-2844. ISBN: 0-9755031-0-3. Check out Ron’s Web site at www.CircaArt.com

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There are three things to leave behind;your photographs,your library,and your personal journals. These things are certainly going to be more valuable to future generations than your furniture!

Jim Rohn 

Steiff Snuffy cat, soft, Grey- EAN: 077364

 

 

 

Suzlee Ibrahim's Monsoon Catalogue.

The rustic pathways (of Tew Nai Tong)

The rustic pathways

By OOI KOK CHUEN
star2@thestar.com.my

Grassroots: The late Tew Nai Tong said his works were most often inspired by his frequent travels to remote areas both locally and in the neighbouring countries.

The late Tew Nai Tong’s works resonate with a perpetual yearning for freedom and the free spirit.

THE visage and spirit of Tew Nai Tong are discernible in the oval faces of phoenix-eyed damsels that dominated his oil canvas even as the artist is now gone. Nai Tong died in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday on the eve of GE13 from an aggravated lung infection. He was 77.

Nai Tong, who studied at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore (Nafa, 1957-58), is one of the last “Matinee Heroes” of the Nanyang Style – a romanticised amalgam of regional art of the “Southern Seas” (South of China) by then émigré China artists to Malaya and Singapore who were mostly artist-lecturers. It was taken up by succeeding generations of teachers and students at Nafa, which was set up by Lim Hak Tai (1893-1963) in 1938.

The style was inspired by the beauty and innocence of a then pastoral frontier-land Malaya/Singapore, with the spicy local tropical colours and feeling, and nubile damsels after the Gauguin Tahitian ideal.

Added to the matrix is a School of Paris sophistication, as Nafa graduates would ritually follow up their studies at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. It’s also influenced by the cult of mannered figurations inspired by shadow-puppets and Euro-Balinese art, especially that by the Belgian Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres (1880-1958).

Nai Tong adopted the style as seen in his first solo in Kuala Lumpur in 1964 signing his works with the name “Chang Nai Tong”. After his Paris studies, he had modified and refined the style for its spirit and nostalgia in a changing and vastly changed place.

His repertoire also included the humpbacked cows and buffaloes of an amazing technicolour dreamcoat; the rustic camaraderie among village people, shown amidst their environment and domesticated animals – a time of traditional pastimes like kite-flying (Kite Series 1992-2001) and bird-rearing symbolising freedom; nudes; Balinese life and dancers (1993-2006; he visited Bali again just two weeks before his death); and the panaromic multi-cultural Festival Series microcosm.

When he did his first nude paintings in 1968 when he studied at the Paris institute from August 1967 to 1968, it was a culture shock. But he re-explored the subject with refreshing vigour and greater experience of delicate contours and sensuality when he revisited Paris in 1999 (February to April) under the Cite Internationale des Arts programme, and again in 2000, 2001 and 2002 (he had confided in me that he planned to go back to Paris next year).

Village life: Tew Nai Tong said he never painted city life as he was bored with it.

At the Paris institute, he came under the tutelage of William Sham and Tondu. Several other Malaysians were also studying there – Long Thien Shih, Chew Kiat Lim (now based in Toronto, Canada), Wong Moo Choo, Loo Foh Sang, Tan Pek Cheng (later Loo’s wife) and Tan Tong, who curated his (Nai Tong’s) major Odyssey retrospective at the National Art Gallery in 2007.

They were preceded in Paris by Liu Kang (later a Singaporean, and a pioneer artist), Chia Yu-chian, Lai Foong Mooi and Yeo Hoe Koon (now in Singapore).

At Nafa, then at its No. 49, St Thomas Walk premises, his contemporaries included Ho Khay Beng (1933-86, later trained in Italy), Singaporeans Thomas Yeo (born 1936) and Wee Beng Chong (born 1938).

There were still teachers there with good pedigrees, like Chen Wen-hsi, Khor Chien Tee, Tan See Teik and Chen Chong Swee (only part-time then), although the Golden Age of the Nanyang style, between 1938 to 1965, had lapsed by then. Nai Tong never studied under Cheong Soo-pieng (1917-83), the style’s spiritual proponent, as many have mistakenly thought.

In an interview in Bangkok in 2011, Nai Tong also dispelled the narrow interpretation of the Nanyang style as prescribed by Nafa founder Lim Hak Tai: “Nanyang style is not exclusive to those studying at Nafa, and Hak Tai’s guiding principles are not the gospel truth to be followed strictly, but are visionary and are more open-ended,” he said.

Nai Tong’s “squint eye” feature was not a Nanyang concoction but was actually based on the figure stereotypes of the Tang and Sung dynasty arts in China, and the hollowed-out stub of an eye is more reminiscent of the style of Indonesian modern master Jeihan Sukmantoro (born 1938).

Although Nai Tong’s art is about the simple pleasures of life, human dignity and the joy of living, there have been nuanced changes over the years in techniques, style and treatment of colours, spacing, perspective, depth, forms and surface painting (brush and palette knife) with radial multiple focal points for a more airy approach. He used a horizontal format, centre-sideways and sometimes a top-down bird’s eye view for more dimensionality and light.

His story was about the intimate bond between Man and Nature, with all that it represents, pushing up and compressing the sky region to a narrower space, thus pushing the Figure centre-front. His lines and aura were more towards the Modigliani figure-types than anything by Cheong Soo-pieng.

As a sign of the times in the 1970s, and for decorum’s sake, his damsels were no longer half-naked but were modestly clad in saree blouses or bras.

From the drab dark brown and cold blue and purple of his early days, Nai Tong moved onto to free his colours for a mood affinity. His figures were later less angular and Cubist. In 2002, he attempted an ambitious series of huge canvases, in the 150cm x 360cm format, for works on rural economic activities including those on Sarawakian natives apart from the Balinese pageantry.

At the end of 2012, he started experimenting with “negative” space around the corners, for strategic contrast.

He was also daring for his use of the vertical pole, either a tree or a stave, which often cleaves his composition into parts.

Nai Tong began painting mostly in watercolours until he switched to oil in 1990. His career included a stint in copper tooling (1960-70) and metal sculptures (1975-85).

He became a full-time artist in 1992 after teaching for 23 years at three different art institutions – the Malaysian Institute of Art (1969-80), the Central Academy of Art (1982-85) and the Saito Academy of Art (1986-88).

He was also active in promoting watercolours as co-founder of the Malaysian Watercolour Society in 1982-83 and the Malaysian Contemporary Watercolours Association in 1994.

The other ways in which he promoted Malaysian art included organising exhibitions at home and abroad, the last being the Malaysia-China Friendship Arts Exchange, which had its first leg in Kuala Lumpur in March. He was to have joined the second leg in Qingdao in China.

More than a sentimental lark, his paintings are about joie de vivre, of village people celebrating and playing together, with notions of plenty, like a bountiful fruit harvest or flower still-lifes.

Most of all, his works resonate with a perpetual yearning for freedom and the free spirit – Chagall-like figures in dreamscapes, the nudes bereft of inhibitions, the open outdoors for kite-flying, and the larger format paintings.

Quiet, unassuming and taciturn, Nai Tong often wore a perpetually distracted look while indulging in his regular past time of having a drink with buddy Low Kong Wen and watching the world pass by. But the world around him lit up when he broke into a gentle smile. In his casket during the wake, he looked so at peace: he must have learnt the art of ultimate freedom.

A Write Up On Tew Nai Tong By The Star

A journey through Tew Nai Tong's work and life

By OOI KOK CHUEN

Women at work: Tew Nai Tong and Glory Era, his painting of women bearing buckets of rubber latex on poles, at his Glories solo exhibition in Kuala Lumpur. � AZMAN GHANI/The Star
 

Tew Nai Tong's latest exhibition is a veritable journey through the veteran artist's work and life.

THE Glories exhibition is a cursory timeline of Tew Nai Tong's art, craft and life, taking up the story nearly 35 years into his career after his first art studies at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore (Nafa, 1957-58).

Maybe not so much by design, the 28 works offer glimpses of his different periods and at different places, while he varies on his trademark Nanyang-and-Post repertoire in terms of nuanced changes in technique, style and subject.

Starting from 1991 (Sisters And Free Land), the works do show, as a capsule, how he breaks convention in terms of colour, spacing, perspective, depth, form and surface painting (brushstrokes and palette knife). His latest, Morning Market (2012) and Childhood Happy Life (2012), also leave a negative corner space of drawings to reveal the incipient strokes as well as for strategic contrast with the heavy impastoes.

Significantly, the starting point in this show was a time when Tew began painting in oil (1990) after working mostly in watercolours. It was also when he went truly full-time (1992) following a 23-year teaching career at three local art institutions.

Glories, the largest painting in the show, featuring simple pastimes in the village.
 

Now 77, the Klang (Selangor)-born Tew is regarded as one of the very last Nanyang (Southern Seas) Style matinee heroes (his living contemporaries in Paris, Tan Tong and Long Thien Shih, are not Nafa-trained).

He has remained faithful to the subject of the charms of the old Malaya with its frontier unexplored land and sparse, harsh vegetation. But there are subtle developments resulting in a style that has been more noticeable over the last three decades and a half, with his remodelled Figures.

Yes, the Nanyang Style wannabe who started at Nafa and then followed up with tutelage in Paris (Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, 1967-68) is now a master in his own right.
Some may compare his early works to those of the Singapore art pioneer Cheong Soo-pieng (who, incidentally, never taught him at Nafa), though he was not into Cheongs exaggerated forms and gestures like elongated limbs and distended torsos.

His figures are imbued with the spirit of the bygone age a willingness to work, carefree, a bit naive perhaps, serene and contented, uncomplicated and most of all, free!

Women are the favoured sex in Tew's figurations with their cheeks sometimes ruddy and sometimes pale like in a Le Pho painting. At times, the figure appears androgynous.

Men or women, on Tew's canvas, they are all born with squinty eyes or phoenix eyes', an attribute redolent of the refined figure stereotypes of the Tang and Sung dynasty arts in China.

If you look carefully, both sexes are coined in the visage of the artist himself, squinty eyes et al. The Amber Chia lips are different though, to suggest a pout of coyness as well as for a touch of humour. Also, his figures are, in line with the times, clothed and not half-naked or even clad in brassieres, for modesty and a certain decency.

If at all, his figures are more akin to Modigliani's, with the graceful pulled lines and slightly rouged faces. On a deeper bonding level, there is the mother-and-child theme  a perennial favourite of artists West or East.

Tew likes to subvert the time-honoured colour wheel using colours as emotive projection and even decoration, sometimes off-tangent of one another, and not as naturally prescribed. This is most obvious in his technicolour cows that come in purple, red, green, orange....

His palette has also changed from the duller ochres couched in the sombre in the pre-1990s to interesting, much brighter hues in keeping with the tropical milieu.

He uses outlines to demarcate and register the various forms and spaces, with coloured geometric patches as backdrops. His trademark technique also includes the vertical pole  tree or stave that cleaves the composition into two, even three  something that is a disaster in the hands of a novice.

His works are down-to-earth and people-orientated, pushing the ground-level horizontal line upwards, compressing the sky. Even the landscapes are as they are  backdrops. The Figure is The Thing.

Various techniques and elements are often brewed in his painting pot like in Charming Girl (2007  the Year of his Retrospective at the then-National Art Gallery), which combines figures, still-life (flowers in transparent cylindrical vase) and a painting-within-a-painting format.

Balinese Dancers (1998) notches a de rigueur interpretation as is wont of artists in the region, making pilgrimages to the mythical island of dance and rituals.

There is one concession to urban life, Leisure (2001) of Parisian kids roller-skating in thick clothing in the streets under a cloak of grey autumnal backdrop. Done in his last revisit to Paris, it followed an annual pilgrimage from 1999 the first after a lapse of nearly 30 years.

Tew works remain true to the old ways of life  its serenity and simplicity and also dignity, reflecting fleetingly on the relationship between man and nature, man and animals. It also dwells on culture and tradition.

There is also the notion of plentiful with the abundance of fruits, and where the fowls, cattle and goats are treated more like pets than a protein sustenance on the dinner table.

There are two large works in the show Tew's new fascination with the panorama, especially in the Festival Series celebrating the multi-cultural spectrums (not shown here). The bigger works reflect more his greater sense of freedom and also in terms of the expression of movement.

One, Precious Moments (2012), a diptych measuring 2 x 148.6cm x 119.4cm, shows a bevy of rubber tappers seemingly as tall as the trees shouldering poles with big buckets of tapped latex on each end. The other, Glories (2012), stretching 138cm x 242.6cm, packs a repertoire of the villagers pastimes kite-flying, fighting cockerel, top-spinning and bird-rearing.

Just like his Chagall-like nudes hovering in the air in dreamscapes like a human dirigible as in Life Of Freedom, it registers a transient spirit looking for permanence, pleasure and peace, like the refugees of life in search of a better place and a better tomorrow. It resonates with the artist's inner cry for his own freedom, whatever it is.

> Glories, a solo art exhibition by Tew Nai Tong, is on display at Pinkguy Malaysia Art & Frame in Jalan Pinang, Kuala Lumpur, until Feb 2. For details, call 03-2166 2166.