Nocturnal Landscape is likely to have been painted in 1962 or 1963. It is very similar in style to a group of 24 oil paintings and 31 watercolours exhibited at the Redfern Gallery in Cork Street, London between 23 April to 17 May 1963. The exhibition took place at the end of a two-year period of travel for Soo Pieng across continental Europe and Britain starting in 1961. Already by 1960 he was using more wet-on-wet watercolour techniques in his village scenes alongside a Cubist-inspired geometry, and by 1964 his paintings were becoming more concrete with recognisable forms, whether figurative, the built environment or landscape.

The works in the Redfern show all featured the stylistic approach that we see here: a mix of the Chinese literati ink painting tradition, which is based upon shades of black ink – conceived as different colours in Chinese art theory – and Abstract Expressionist gestural splashes and colour field painting in the same space. In London Soo Pieng was captivated by the works of JMW Turner and John Constable’s oil sketches, which he saw in the national collections. Their capture of light and its effect on atmosphere can be seen in Soo Pieng’s billowing, luminous forms.

While it is not certain whether the current piece was in the Redfern show, since titles may have changed and not all of the paintings were reproduced in the original catalogue, three dated oil paintings from this period that are similar in palette have been sold in recent years. Subtlety, 1963, at Christie's Shanghai (26 April 2014) for RMB 1.1m premium (US $180,000); Paysage, 1962, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong (31 May 2015) for HKD2.08m premium (US $ 268,320); and Blue Expression, 1963, at Christie’s Hong Kong (2 Dec 2020) for HKD1.375m premium (US $177,400). The Redfern exhibition resulted in a number of institutions purchasing Soo Pieng’s work. The Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, bought Abstraction II (Redfern No.7), and Leicestershire County Council Collection has Chinese Landscape III (Redfern No.15).

The auction record for any work by Soo Pieng was set by a piece from this series of works. Nature's Inspiration, 1963, sold for HKD11.5m (US $1,475,795) premium-inclusive at Christie's Hong Kong (28 Nov 2023).


Viv Lawes Art Historian, Sotheby's Institute of Art
University of the Arts London, Imperial College
Consultant, Larasati Auctioneers and One East Asia