Artist: Lim Tze Peng ( b. 1923)

Lim Tze Peng, a living legend and one of Singapore's most important artists, was born in 1921. He is well known for his post-independence Singapore Chinese ink masterpieces, and is also a practitioner of Chinese calligraphy. His works are on display in notable Singapore institutions and are part of numerous prestigious collections, in addition to local and international exhibitions. Lim has received numerous honors, including the Special Prize at the Commonwealth Art Exhibition in England in 1977 and Singapore's coveted Cultural Medallion in 2003. Lim set new records with the sale of his pieces at a Christies auction in Hong Kong in May 2012.

Even though Lim was born and educated in Singapore, his diligent studies and daily dedication to practicing his craft enabled him to excel in the Chinese ink tradition. His latest ink paintings are steeped in tradition, while also possessing a distinctly contemporary feel to them, and can be appreciated by those trained in other traditions and from many walks of life. 

Mr Lim Tze Peng, the country's oldest living pioneer artist, recently turned 101 years old in light of September last year, 2021. 

Woon Tai Ho, a media veteran, has written a book about the famous man behind the art. The new book and exhibition titled 'Soul Of Ink: Lim Tze Peng At 100', honours his many accomplishments throughout the years. 

To add a bit more context to his background, Mr Lim was the eldest of seven children to a rubber planter and a housewife. He grew up in a kampung in Pasir Ris and discovered his passion for calligraphy while attending Chung Cheng High School.

Later, he began his teaching career at Xin Min School. He then left his position as principal in 1981 at the ripe age of 60, to finally pursue a career as a full-time artist.

His works have even earned themselves a statement from our very own prime minister, Mr.Lee Hsien Loong, Where he describes Lim’s body of works as being,

“...undeniably rooted in Chinese art, from the materials to the style of painting and writing. But the spirit of his art is neither Eastern nor Western. It is Singaporean ", Stated Prime Minister Lee. 

He continues, 

"Mr. Lim has inspired new generations of local artists, each with their own unique styles, but all distinctively Singaporean. Piece by piece, each new artwork contributes to our collective identity, our sense of national identity and pride" (Quote taken from Straits Times article)

The veteran artist has noted his wishes for Singapore to open up more platforms for art exhibitions and that more talented local artists will emerge from the homeland. With great wisdom, he quotes,

"Time, to me, is more precious than money. I am grateful for what I have been given and I will continue to work hard."

For somebody with such an impressive background in his area of expertise, it is refreshing to hear a take that is so deeply humble, and telling of his willingness to constantly learn.  

After beginning his artistic journey in the 1950s, Lim is most known for his Chinese ink drawings and paintings of Chinatown and the Singapore River, which he did in the early 1980s. His paintings of these sites represented and highlighted the changes that these prominent places in Singapore were undergoing as a result of urban growth.

Open the Coconut - Lim Tze Ping

Here is one of Lim’s pictorial representations of the olden day atap houses that resided by the Singapore River. It was very much a different way of life back then, and operated at a much slower pace, with the sort of work that many people of the time were doing being linked to the farming of natural resources. As shown in his painting, done with his signature watercolour and chinese ink, these ladies have made a way of living from harvesting and preparing coconuts for sale. 

These paintings are a reflection of Lim's experiences as a Singaporean seeing his kampong's development before turning into an urbanized capital, and they capture the city's cultural diversity and pre-transformation. Lim demonstrates how Singapore's multi-cultural milieu may help artists respond to a wide range of influences without becoming caught in a defensive type of traditionalism or a shallow form of cosmopolitanism.

Lim, who had a strong background in Chinese philosophy, art, and culture, also dabbled in Chinese calligraphy in the 1990s. Lim's creative motivations for his new works are clear: "I look and I paint, now I reflect and I paint," he says. His most recent calligraphic works demonstrate a new degree of creative maturity; their raw intensity reflects an aggressive swiftness and decisive savagery, injecting a dose of energizing tension into the calligraphy.

Consciousness - Lim Tze Peng

Stylistically, Lim Tze Peng adheres to the ‘cursive’ style of Chinese calligraphy. Sometimes also titled as “sloppy script”, or 草书/草書/căoshū, in mandarin, which is often mistranslated as ‘grass script’ - it is a script style used in Chinese and East Asian calligraphy. The image shown to the left is Lim’s rendition of a poem from the Tang Dynasty. 

Cursive script is quicker to write than other forms, but it might be harder to read for individuals who aren't used to it. It's primarily used as a type of calligraphic style or shorthand script. This may be tough to read for anyone who can only read standard or printed forms of Chinese or comparable scripts.

There is also "wild cursive" (Chinese and Japanese: ; pinyin: kuángco; rmaji: kys), which is even more cursive and harder to read than zhngco and "contemporary cursive." Zhang Xu and Huaisu, who devised it during the Tang dynasty, were dubbed Din Zhng Zu Sù (crazy Zhang and inebriated Su). In this style, cursive is more important for its creativity than for its legibility.

Cursive scripts are classified as disconnected (Chinese: ; pinyin: dco; Japanese: ; rmaji: dokus) or connected (Chinese: ; pinyin: liánmián; Japanese: ; rmaji: renmentai).

Cursive scripts can be divided into the unconnected style (Chinese: 獨草; pinyin: dúcǎo; Japanese: 独草; rōmaji: dokusō) where each character is separate, and the connected style (Chinese: 連綿; pinyin: liánmián; Japanese: 連綿体; rōmaji: renmentai) where each character is connected to the succeeding one. Mr. Lim uses variations of both. 

Long Stream - Lim Tze Peng

Lim Tze Peng also has a unique body of works that can be thought of as a juncture between his cursive calligraphy and abstract art - Very much a meeting of two worlds. 

In his painting, Long Stream, he uses cursive calligraphy methods with a black paintbrush - loose movements of the wrist, paired with swift motions to create a stylistically free-flowing appearance. He then blurs the boundaries between the meaning of the written word, and something more pictorial, or represents the written word as an image, by colouring in the spaces with a largely triadic style using the signature and bold tones of red, blue and yellow - placed intuitively in areas of the painting. It is very much a play on the boundaries between scripture and imagery, as well as aesthetics on space. 

Mr. Lim Tze Peng hopes that there will be more platforms for art exhibitions and that a wider pool of talented local artists will eventually emerge from Singapore.

Upon receiving his Meritorious Service Medal in 2016, Lim quotes,

 "I would like to donate some of my artworks that are good or outstanding to the country, so more Singaporeans and people from other countries will be able to see these works."

Time and time again, he has continued to make his country proud through his service and dedication to the arts scene in Singapore.