035

LITERATURE
Kuo Juping by Dr Tan Chee Khuan (Exhibition: Kuo Juping Memorial Exhibition, August 5-30, 1997)

Kuo Juping, like Yong Mun Sen, was a “grassroot artist”. He was always there whether it be rubber estates, oil palm/cocoa plantations, padi fields, kampungs or the makeshift outdoor hawker centres, depicting the economic activities and pastimes of all the races. Here, you can see the genesis of the unique hawker culture paintings popularised by his protégé Tan Choon Ghee. Till today, Penangites dine alfresco round the clock. The remarkable thing is how Juping plays on the rounded shape in the hawker shelter canopy, the cemented rings around the trees and the tables, whilst the jutting triangle on bottom left is repeated in the chair and the semi-circle canopy. A well composed work.