Born in China in 1949, Tan Kian Por moved to Singapore in 1962. He studied at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts from 1968 – 1970. His training of Chinese painting and seal-carving was guided by local ink masters, See Hiang To and Chen Cheong Swee. A highly versatile ink painter, Tan is capable of handling varied subject matters ranging from flora, fauna to human figure, with disciplined yet flexible brushwork to serve different pictorial purposes. Produced during the 1980s, this work is representative of Tan’s early artistic achievement, and strongly attests his creativity and technical competence. The work “Red Jade Vine” shows the artist’s successful effort to represent the local subject matter based on the pictorial convention of traditional bird-and-flower painting. The compositional arrangement and line brushwork skilfully deployed by him bring a rhythmic vitality to the pictorial image.
