TAN Choh-Tee

Tan Choh Tee is a Chinese-born Singaporean artist. Born in Guangdong China in 1942, he immigrated to Singapore in 1953, and enrolled himself into the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in 1958. He is a highly regarded but low profile second-generation Singaporean artist.

Old Singapore: up till the 1980s Tan Choh Tee resigned from his job as a book designer to become a full-time artist in 1976 because of a deep frustration with the rapid demolition of Singapore's heritage. Witnessing the country's fast-paced urban redevelopment, he felt an urgent need to capture and "immortalize" old landscapes—particularly in Chinatown This no strings attached stint allowed him to immerse himself in the global art scene, meeting artists from around the world and conducting extensive study tours of major French museums. In the Oral History Interviews conducted by National Archives Singapore, he mentioned that he spent the first two months visiting museums, learning as much as he could from all the masterpieces. Choh Tee was also given a special pass which allowed him to enter the museums freely without having to queue.

Awards and Notable Collectors Tan Choh Tee received the Cultural Medallion for Visual Arts in 2006. His artworks are featured in prestigious collections such as the National Museum of Singapore, the Brunei Museum, several other art galleries and private institutions, with UOB holding one of the largest collections with around 28 pieces.

Partial exhibitions

1978: Cologne Exhibition, Klockner-Humboldt, Deutz A.G. Museum, Germany. 1979: Art in Action, The National Museum, Singapore. 1999: One Man Art Exhibition, Apollo Art Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan. 2007: The Shanghai Art Fair, Shanghai, China. 2007: Imagining The City, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore. 2010: Art Expo Malaysia 2010, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Works

Tan Choh Tee's paintings generally fall into one of the following three categories:

En plein air Still life Nudes Also, his works are usually around 60 cm by 70 cm or smaller. Bigger sizes are rare, with diptych being much harder to come by. Triptych, which can be a superior form of art presentation when used appropriately because it breaks the static nature of a single image thus creating a "visual journey" that a standalone canvas cannot achieve, represents the pinnacle of what Choh Tee is trying to achieve in his artistic pursuit. This format is particularly effective for panoramic expansion, allowing a landscape to feel immersive and vast. Personality and Reputation

Tan Choh Tee is renowned for being a highly principled artist who persists in perfecting his practice while avoiding the limelight and extensive social interaction. As a result, few of his collectors have actually met him in person. He stated in mandarin, “I am not good at socialising, and I am not able to manage if there is too much of it. So I’ll leave it to the art gallery owners to help me deal with the publicity.” When asked whether his decision to avoid such events would have a negative impact on himself as well as the art galleries who represent him, he replied that, because he is not comfortable with socialising, speaking too much might not be beneficial, and that he preferred to let his works speak for themselves. There was also an account from a former gallery staff member who shared that Choh Tee was the only Singaporean artist she knew who did not appear particularly excited after learning that his paintings had been sold. In fact, he often took a long time to collect his payment.

One of the most elaborate descriptions of Tan Choh Tee’s personality was given by Tan Chee Lay, an associate professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Culture at the National Institute of Education, when he recounted his first encounter with Tan Choh Tee in 2025.