046

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

Kuo Juping was committed to painting despite having to run his father’s import-export business (Sin Guan Thye Company in Victoria Street, Penang). He never sold a single painting during his lifetime and signed his canvas only in Chinese, but someone later added a signature in English, probably to boost the value of the works. Sometimes, he would not sign and sometimes he would add a Chinese seal chop (Dr Tan Chee Khuan, Kuo Juping Memorial Exhibition, Penang State Art Gallery, August 5-30, 1997)In this painting, the three trees clustered together separate the atap-roof stilt houses, providing a shade and also indicating how tall the houses were. The direction of the three wooden ladders fanning upwards leads the eye in a play of slopes and triangles.