Tan Choon Ghee

031

b. Penang, 1930 - d. 2010
Tan Choon Ghee
At The Barber Shop
1985
signed ‘Choon Ghee 1985’ bottom left
watercolour on paper
37 x 55cm
Provenance
Private collection, Penang; acquired directly from artist.
Estimate
RM 5,000 – 6,000
Price Realised
RM 8,250

LITERATURE
The Art of Tan Choon Ghee (Cover essay by Ooi Kok Chuen, Georgetown Printers, 1997)
Tan Choon Ghee Retrospective (1957-1992). The Art Gallery Penang
A Tribute to Tan Choon Ghee (2009). Exhibition: Art Salon@SENI, KL November 15-December 20, 2009

An unusually crowded work of Indian barbers working at a Straits Eclectic terraced house front in Penang with a light mobile hawker cart and a trishaw with children seated inside. The typical elements of such houses are there – louvred shutters, bamboo blinds, a pair of large lanterns, makeshift altar on the side of a front pillar, decorative ceramic vents and mini cement staircases across the front drains.All the front doors are ajar, indicating the people were out and about and a sense of comfort, security and community spirit, unlike nowadays when most front entrances are grilled up and the doors securely locked.