Extract from "Masterpieces from the National Art Gallery of Malaysia"
《Rocks Forms, Penang》42.5cm x 49.5cm Oil on canvas Undated, c. 1941
Lee Cheng Yong
Born: 1913
Education: 1930s- Shanghai Academy of Fine Art, China
Lee Cheng Yong was another of the pioneer pre-War painters who had studied in mainland in the Beaux-Arts type art academies during the 1930s. In China, he had absorbed the ideatic influences of the School of Paris. In this impressive painting, the influence of Post-Impressionism is clear. The influence of Paul Cezanne can be detected in the artist’s treatment of the solidly rendered rock forms and the tight pictorial structure. The emphasis is clearly on mass, volume and space. The confident brushstrokes and controlled, somber tonalities define distinct planar relationships and emphasise light effects as well. The artist has convincingly captured the monumental weightedness of the rock forms. Spatial depth is compressed and the rock forms are interspersed with stretches of the sandy beach. The quiet, isolated atmosphere of the beach, filled with the rock forms, has been punctuated by the frothy white waves shown breaking against the rocks. This is a very accomplished work indeed revealing an economy of means adopted by the artist to achieve the desired effects.
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