About the artwork
“金石斋” – jin shi zhai. When the characters are broken up, “金” translates to gold, a precious metal, “石” translates to stone, symbolising strength and hardiness and “斋”, meaning a home or building. When combined, the phrase symbolises a home of resilience. Lim creates a square border around the characters, and in the chinese culture, the square is a symbol of Earth, a permanent home. In this piece, it is evident that he worked with an ink stained paper from the layering of paper when painting. This method he adopted after years of perfecting gives his artworks a very distinct style and look. Firm and dense strokes exhibited by Lim along with the ink stains creates a complete and balanced composition.
About the artist
Born in Singapore in 1921, Lim Tze Peng is one of Singapore’s most significant artists and a living legend. Renowned for his Chinese ink creations of post-independence Singapore, he also practices Chinese calligraphy. Alongside local and international exhibitions, his masterpieces are exhibited in prominent Singapore institutions and part of many prestigious collections. Lim has been bestowed several awards including the Special Prize at the Commonwealth Art Exhibition in England in 1977 and the prestigious Cultural Medallion in Singapore in 2003. In May 2012, he broke records with the sale of his works at a Christies auction in Hong Kong.