Lot Essay

Unusual subject matter and an impressive scale respectively of two works by Tay Bak Koi, Still Life with Bottles and Fruit Platter and Riverside House and Boats, make them stand apart from more typical works by this Singaporean artist known for his paintings of buffalo, the Singapore River, fishing villages, urban landscapes and kampongs.

The combination of realism with a poetic vision marks his style, but he experimented with different approaches throughout his career. At the age of 25 he was absorbing the international influences that can be seen in the biomorphic forms, flattened space and overlapping geometry of Still Life with Bottles and Fruit Platter. His 1960s works are marked by heavy dark outlines that hover between calligraphic ink painting and Dubuffet-like geometry, but this still life is lighter. The ivory paper pushes through the green, blue, yellow and red watercolour in the odd negative outline of bottle and fruit, through the reserved grid against the green foreground and background. This compression of plane to the surface is further abstracted by the sketchy black grid superimposed over the whole surface, making the whole a satisfying example of formal play. Last appearing on the market in 2014 (Christie's Hong Kong, HKD106,250/ US$13,700 premium-inclusive), it is a timely offering that marks the 20th anniversary of Tay’s passing.

Tay transports a delightful imaginary to an observed scene in Riverside House and Boats, applying a restrained version of the elliptical sweeps that describe the forms of his celebrated and quintessentially minimalised buffalo to the built environment. The abstraction of white for the water through which his scratchy boatmen punt, which is picked up in some of the houses' roofs, is balanced by the terracotta, ochres and browns of the houses. The tiny touch of clear blue applied amongst the jumble of houses nearest the river, and the solid and outlined circle of piercing red on two boats, bring moisture and heat respectively to the scene in the most subtle but significant manner. It is a masterful touch. This oil painting also last came to the market in 2014 and stands as one of the highest prices seen for the artist (Christie's Hong Kong, HKD350,000/ US$45,000). It is comparable in its formal qualities to the 1983 oil, Fishing Village Scenery, which was again last sold in 2014 (33 Auction, SGD60,000/ US$48,000 premium-inclusive).

Biography
Graduating from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1957, the majority of Tay's solo exhibitions took place in Singapore and Malaysia, but included a show in Melbourne in 1975. He participated in group exhibitions internationally, including the Hong Kong, Australia, Japan, the UK, Germany and United States.