Thomas Yeo

(b. 1936)

Landscape

Footnotes

Provenance
Estate of Rosalind Ratnam

*Please note that this lot is located in Singapore. Buyer is responsible to arrange shipping from present location of lot to buyer's desired destination. To enquire shipping quote, please contact [email protected]

Like many other second-generation artists, Thomas Yeo (b. 1936) trained under Singaporean pioneers and Nanyang Style artists such as Georgette Chen and Cheong Soo Pieng.
 
Working against a backdrop of turbulent times of political and social changes, he broke away from the conventional to find new ways in representing Nanyang style, and to forge new aesthetics that represent the country's social and cultural identity. He turned to abstraction as a visual style, also adopted by the likes of Vincent Hoisington, and departed from the figurative narrative to convey the mood and atmosphere of the time. 
 
One of his idiosyncratic "mindscapes", Yeo's Landscape is emblematic of the quiet surrealist natural environments Yeo would become known for. A dream of wispy images of trees washed in light blues and greens, his abstractions of colour and textures create a "highly imaginative landscape of the unconscious mind". Yeo is still "first and foremost a colourist" as described by fellow artist and critic Chia Wai Hon and Landscape places colour as its topmost priority. It is a testament to Yeo's skill, using cool greens and yellows, draped in dark shadows, to convey the palpable tropical feeling of Southeast Asia. 
 
For his contributions to art, Yeo received the Cultural Medallion in 1984. He was also awarded the UOB Painting of the year in 1983 and 1984, and the Distinguished Alumni Medal Inaugural Award of NAFA in 2009.