Chuah Thean Teng

Dato' Chuah Thean Teng (; 191425 November 2008), also known as Cai Tianding, was a Malaysian artist who is credited with the development of batik as a painting technique.

Early life and education Chuah Thean Teng was born in 1914 in Fujian, China; Chuah's father traded sundries while his mother made shoes for women with bound feet. The family emigrated to Penang, Malaysia when Chuah was 14; Chuah returned to Fujian to pursue an education at the Amoy Art School (later the Xiamen Academy of Fine Arts), but returned to Malaya (now Malaysia) at the age of 17. on his own under the pseudonym Choo Ting, while working part-time as an art teacher. Early experiments in art Following World War II, Chuah opened a batik factory in Penang. While the venture quickly proved to be a failure, Chuah began experimenting with batik as an art form. said of his work "It is astonishing to think that although making batik has been common for hundreds of years, no one before Teng ever thought of adapting this age-old craft as a medium of fine art." He went on to say "Teng and Teng alone, is responsible for this most original contribution to the whole world of art. As an artist in this old and new medium, Teng is the unquestioned master."

Some of the themes which appeared in Chuah's work on include the human figure, landscapes and abstract compositions. Of these, the human figure has been the most significant.

Career He held his first exhibition in 1955 at the Penang Library, curated by Patricia Lim, This seminal exhibition was credited with inaugurating Batik painting as a new art category. He was the second Malaysian artist to be accorded a Retrospective Exhibition at the National Art Gallery (now Balai Seni Visual Negara) in 1965.

In 1968, Chuah's Yahong Gallery published "Batik", which included essays by Ungku Abdul Aziz, then Chairman of the National Art Gallery, and Frank Sullivan, as well as for the first time, essays by Chuah himself, on his philosophy and techniques.

In 1983, Chuah was included in the first national survey of modern Malaysian artists by T. K. Sabapathy and Redza Piyadasa, "Modern Artists of Malaysia", He remained active in his final years and died on 25 November 2008 aged 96. Chuah is survived by three sons, all of whom are also artists: Siew Teng (born 1944), Seow Keng (born 1945), and Siew Kek (born 1946). Similarly, a number of Chuah's works were gifted by Loke Wan Tho to the Singapore Government, which became Singapore's National Collection of visual art, currently under the care of the National Gallery, Singapore.

This has continued to the present day, as Chuah's self-portrait, which uses batik to depict a "very strong gaze showing his (Chuah's) sense of determination", was the first artwork to be registered in the National Collection of visual art when the National Gallery, Singapore was established.

In December 2022, a book "Exploring Southeast Asia with Chuah Thean Teng: Father of Batik Painting" illustrating Chuah's life and his contributions to Southeast Asian art was published.

Solo exhibitions Source:

1955, Arts Council of Penang and Province Wellesley, Penang Library 1956, British Council, Singapore 1957, Kuala Lumpur 1959, Commonwealth Institute, London 1963, Arts Council, British Council Centre, Kuala Lumpur 1964, Arts Council, British Council Centre, Kuala Lumpur 1964, Pomeroy Galleries, San Francisco, California, USA 1965, Commonwealth Institute, London 1965, Retrospective exhibition, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur 1967, Stichting Twents-Gelders Textielmuseum, Enschede, Holland 1972, The Gallery, Palm Springs, California, USA 1977, Churchill Art Gallery, Perth, Australia 1994, Retrospective exhibition, Penang State Art Gallery, Penang 2008, Retrospective exhibition, Balai Seni Lukis Negara, Kuala Lumpur (now the Balai Seni Visual Negara)