Dato' Chuah Thean Teng (; 191425 November 2008), also known as Cai Tianding, was a Malaysian artist who is credited with the development of batik as a painting technique.
Early life and education
Chuah Thean Teng was born in 1914 in Fujian, China; Chuah's father traded sundries while his mother made shoes for women with bound feet. The family emigrated to Penang, Malaysia when Chuah was 14; Chuah returned to Fujian to pursue an education at the Xiamen Academy of Fine Arts, but was forced to return to Malaysia due to an illness. He subsequently experimented with various art media on his own under the pseudonym Choo Ting, while working part-time as an art teacher.
Career
Following World War II, Chuah opened a batik factory in Penang. While the venture quickly proved to be a failure, Chuah began experimenting with batik as an art form. According to T.K. Sabapathy, Chuah produced his first batik medium work entitled Malayan Life in 1941. Some of the themes which appeared in Chuah's work on include the human figure, landscapes and abstract compositions. Of these, the human figure has been the most significant. He held his first exhibition in 1955. He established the art and antique gallery Yahong Art Gallery in 1975. His artwork was featured on UNESCO greeting cards in 1989.
Final years
He was conferred the Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri (DSPN) by the Penang State Government in 1998, which carried the title of Dato'. Chuah was awarded the Penang Heritage Trust's Living Heritage Award in 2005. He remained active in his final years and died on 25 November 2008 aged 96. Chuah is survived by three sons, all of whom are also artists: Siew Teng (born 1944), Seow Keng (born 1945), and Siew Kek (born 1946).
Legacy
Chuah Thean Teng is widely regarded as the "father of batik art" who developed batik as a means of painting; "his adaptation of the traditional batik medium into an accepted form of painting ... elevated the status of batik as a craft to an art medium." Chuah's self-portrait, which uses batik to depict a "very strong gaze showing his (Chuah's) sense of determination", was the first artwork to be registered in the National Collection of visual art at the National Gallery Singapore. In December 2022, a book "Exploring Southeast Asia with Chuah Thean Teng: Father of Batik Painting" illustrating Chuah's life and his contributions to Southeast Asian art was published.
Solo Exhibitions
1955, Arts Council, Penang
1959, Commonwealth Institute, London
1964, Pomeroy Galleries, San Francisco, California, USA
1965, Retrospective exhibition, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
1967, Stichting Twents-Gelders Textielmuseum, Enschede, Holland
1972, The Gallery, Palm Springs, California, USA
1977, Churchill Art Gallery, Perth, Australia
1994, Retrospective exhibition, Penang State Art Gallery, Penang
2008, Retrospective exhibition, Balai Seni Lukis Negara, Kuala Lumpur (now the Balai Seni Visual Negara)