Building a material record of Singaporean art through technical art history: a case study of the paintings of Cheong Soo Pieng

Abstract

With a greater awareness of the importance of context-driven research, there has been an emergence of technical art history studies of works of art from Southeast Asia. This article begins with an overview of the conservation research landscape in Singapore and discusses some of the key challenges which need to be overcome, such as a lack of a robust artist materials dataset and limited local resources for technical examination. Using a structured data collection methodology, data generated from various primary examination techniques were analysed cross-comparatively and the article presents a case study of the investigation of 59 works of art by a pioneering Singaporean artist, Cheong Soo Pieng (1917–1983). Patterns and trends from the study offer insights into the artist’s practice, including an incorporation of local materials marouflaged into traditional canvas preparation techniques. The findings report on the assimilation of art practices and localisation of Western art influences in Soo Pieng’s work, whilst demonstrating that art practices in Southeast Asia are not necessarily a product of Western colonisation. Understanding the artist’s materials and techniques enables the expansion of material knowledge and can serve as an anchor for future study of works of art between the 1940s and 1980s.