Born in 1941 in Malaysia, Tay Chee Toh studied at Singapore’s Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and has a postgraduate degree (Oil Painting) from China. He is the recipient of numerous painting and sculpture awards, and in 1985 Tay was conferred the Government of Singapore’s Cultural Medallion Award.‘Nude 1’ and ‘Nude 2’ depict beautiful lyrical female forms modelled on the women of the Dayak. These women are far from flighty and insubstantial, their able bodies attest to Tay's command of three-dimensional form in space. The sensuous curves and contrived balance are the true mark of a draughtsman. A variety of implied features are seen, from the roundness and grooves of a woman's derrière and breasts, waist, crook of knee and elbow and feet en pointe. ‘Nude 2’ is a wonderfully picturesque but powerful piece, that regards both the gravitas of reality and the buoyancy of unencumbered imagination.
