Patrick Ng Kah Onn Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1932 - d. 1989

Patrick Ng Kah Onn was a prodigy of the Wednesday Art Group founded by Peter Harris, and held the post of secretary. He held his first solo at the British Council in Kuala Lumpur in March 1963 and in 1966, his work was selected for the Arts of Malaysia exhibition at the Commonwealth Institute in London. At that time, he was already in London where he studied first at the Chelsea College of Art and Design (now the Hammersmith College) in 1964-65, and then the Wimbledon and Southlands College of Education in 1966-68. He stayed put in London and taught at Hammersmith before he died of liver cancer in 1989. In Malaysia, Patrick Ng had a brief teaching spell at the Methodist Girls School in Kuala Lumpur and his alma mater, Victoria Institution. His brother-in-law, Peter Cocquerel in an interview with Ooi Kok Chuen, revealed that Patrick had only returned once in 1970, for a short visit. He added that Patrick Ng later became more interested in music, opera and films.

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    • Patrick Ng Kah Onn (b. 1932 - 1989) Naked Man, 1950
      Jun. 25, 2023

      Patrick Ng Kah Onn (b. 1932 - 1989) Naked Man, 1950

      Est: RM30,000 - RM50,000

      Works of Patrick Ng Kah Onn in private collection are hard to come by, what more this with a provocative composition of a male nude, crouching on all fours on a small tuft, butt to viewer, au naturel. All around him is water and marshes. What he is doing there, the way he is postured, are open to conjecture. For one, it could herald the Biblical Fall of Man (Genesis 3:19). Maybe, not a ritualistic homage like in his magnum opus, Spirit Of Earth, Water And Air (1958), in the National Art Gallery collection. The colours are kept light, understated, and almost homogenous, with pervasive sepia tones. Four works by Patrick Ng have previously appeared in the Henry Butcher Art Auction. They are the batik Penjara (undated), HB March 24, 2019; The Dancer (1964), HB November 12 2017, which fetched his record price; Dancing Couple (undated), HB April 21, 2013; and Collage In Blue (1963), HB May 6, 2012. Patrick Ng Kah Onn was one of the wunderkind in the Wednesday Art Group coterie formed by Peter Harris. He often signed his canvases in Jawi, as he had learnt to read and write Jawi, as he did Mandarin when he moved to London and where he taught Art before he died of liver cancer, aged 57, in 1989. He received a Sino-British fellowship to study Art in London, first at the Hammersmith College of Art, and then the Wimbledon and Southlands Teacher Training College (Fine Art and Textiles), and taught in Hammersmith until 1972, when he had a breakdown, according to Peter Cocquerel in an interview with writer Ooi Kok Chuen in Kuala Lumpur. Cocquerel revealed that Patrick Ng became more interested in classical music particularly by Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich in his later life, and drama, and had even written a play.

      Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers
    • Patrick Ng Kah Onn (b. 1932 -€“ d. 1989) Penyara, undated
      Mar. 24, 2019

      Patrick Ng Kah Onn (b. 1932 -€“ d. 1989) Penyara, undated

      Est: RM32,000 - RM52,000

      This must rank as arguably the first known batik with pornographic connotations. It is noteworthy that a Patrick Ng Kah Onn batik won the RM3,000 top prize in a Manila art competition. Something kinky’s going on: a totally naked couple, the woman sitting up on the edge of a mattress on the floor with one leg slightly raised and her hands behind her back, while the man slightly turned from her and with his right hand propping on the mattress over the woman’s legs and the other doing something. The room is dingy as if wallpapered with cardboards and with only a metal-bar window framing the woman, who is gazing at viewer, either pleading or in a come-on coquette. Labelled as a batik, it is remarkable that Patrick Ng was able to accomplish the composition with patterns and overlaps and realistic figures using such medium. Patrick Ng Kah Onn was a prodigy of the Wednesday Art Group founded by Peter Harris, and held the post of secretary. He held his first solo at the British Council in Kuala Lumpur in March 1963 and in 1966, his work was selected for the Arts of Malaysia exhibition at the Commonwealth Institute in London. At that time, he was already in London where he studied first at the Chelsea College of Art and Design (now the Hammersmith College) in 1964-65, and then the Wimbledon and Southlands College of Education in 1966-68. He stayed put in London and taught at Hammersmith before he died of liver cancer in 1989. In Malaysia, Patrick Ng had a brief teaching spell at the Methodist Girls School in Kuala Lumpur and his alma mater, Victoria Institution. His brother-in-law, Peter Cocquerel in an interview with Ooi Kok Chuen, revealed that Patrick had only returned once in 1970, for a short visit. He added that Patrick Ng later became more interested in music, opera and films. Patrick Ng’s The Dancer (1964) was sold at RM78,400 in Henry Butcher (November 2017) Art Auction. 43 x 46cm

      Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers
    • PATRICK NG KAH ONN (b. 1932 - d. 1989) THE DANCER, 1964, Oil on masonite board
      Nov. 12, 2017

      PATRICK NG KAH ONN (b. 1932 - d. 1989) THE DANCER, 1964, Oil on masonite board

      Est: RM70,000 - RM120,000

      An unusual work for the artist and for the time it was painted in 1964, and for its semi-abstract approach, it was probably done for decorum and with camouflage. A lithe figure, back to viewer, in the forefront, is wedged against a dark ambiguous blob which could represent one or two figures, presumably larger, or even one in animal costume in some kind of ritual dance. Under a faint light emanating from top, the figures could be dancing in unison or involved in some kind of ritualistic gestures. Sparing broken smudges from the horizontal sweep of black in the lower background offer a fascinating contrast to the denser dark hues in the top half. Patrick Ng Kah Onn is best remembered for the 1959 oil on board, Spirit Of The Earth, Sky And Water, an iconic masterpiece in Malaysian art. This seemingly matured composition suggests it might have been done when Patrick Ng had already enrolled at the Hammersmith College in London in 1964, under a Sino-British scholarship. Patrick Ng was one of the superstars in the informal art coterie, Wednesday Art Group, founded in 1952 by his mentor Peter Harris (1923-2009). He furthered his studies at Wimbledon and Southlands College of Art (1966-1968), majoring in Fine Art and Textiles. After his studies, he stayed put in England and taught at his alma mater until 1972. Noteworthy is Dr Simon Soon’s comments on Patrick Ng’s nudes of “brown bodies” (Frank Sullivan, a.k.a. Chermin’s words) albeit in batik paintings in his paper, Fabric and the Fabrication of a Queer Narrative (The Batik Paintings of Patrick Ng Kah Onn): The nude bodies of Patrick Ng’s paintings are shaded to suggest volumetric space, perhaps drawing on the conventions of European figuration.” In Patrick Ng’s first solo at the Kuala Lumpur British Council in March 1963, he showed 50 watercolours, pastels, wax, charcoal and Indian ink, works. They were influenced by Indian masters M.F. Hussain and Jamini Roy from his visit to India in January the same year. He won the top prize of RM3,000 in an art competition in Manila, the Philippines, with his work, Batik Malaysia. Patrick Ng, who died of liver cancer in London in 1989, is believed to have returned for a short visit to Malaysia only once, in 1970. In an interview with Ooi Kok Chuen, Peter Cocquerel said that Patrick Ng later developed a passion for music, opera and films. He said: “He changed from painting towards music and the moving image.”

      Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers
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