Born in China in 1915 (d. 1996, Singapore), Hou Hsi Ching migrated to Singapore in 1948. A self-taught artist in traditional Chinese brush painting and calligraphy, Hou was awarded the Special Award, National Day Art Exhibition (1971) and the Dr Tan Tze Chor Art Award (1991).Many of Hou’s still life paintings include upright vases with an assortment of flowers and a sprinkling accompaniment of fruit. However, in ‘Innumerable Offsprings’ and ‘Flower and Bread’ (two tableaux Hou painted several versions of), Hue made use of a wicker basket as a prop, thereby straying from the dominant vertical axis of the upright vase to exploring the possibilities of horizontal arrangements. In both of these paintings, Hue has placed the basket and its contents to one side, and relied on the placement of the ears of corn and stalks of flowers respectively to horizontally ground the picture.
