Kian Por Tan Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1949 - d. 2019

Tan Kian Por (???; b. 26 November 1949, Chaozhou, China–d. 16 August 2019, Singapore) was a Chinese calligrapher, painter and seal carver.1 His paintings have a distinctive style, and have been displayed in major art galleries in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea.2 Tan’s works are recognised internationally; they are considered masterpieces in the Nanyang Style, and regarded alongside those of pioneer artists Aw Tee Hong and Chen Wen Hsi.3 For his contributions to the local art scene, Tan was awarded the Cultural Medallion for Visual Arts in 2001.

China-born Tan came to Singapore in 1962 to join his parents, who had arrived earlier. His father sold betel palm for a living and his mother was a housewife.5 Tan first enrolled in Guangyang Primary School and subsequently studied at Tuan Mong High School.6

During his childhood, Tan enjoyed drawing. In secondary school, under the guidance of his Chinese-language teacher, he discovered a love for Chinese calligraphy and painting.7 Under the recommendation of his teachers, the well-known artists Shi Xiang Tuo and Huang Zai Ling, Tan enrolled in the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in 1968 to further his art studies.8

Upon his graduation from NAFA in 1970, Tan took on various jobs, including spray painting carpets and moulding fibre glass basins in factories, while continuing with his artistic interests.

A distinctive style of Tan’s is his creative use of the picture, calligraphic text and the seal – the three essential elements of Chinese painting – in his works.30 Tan considered his practice in calligraphy, seal carving and painting to be inextricably linked. The three elements interplay with one another to complete his artistic thoughts and expressions. Thus in Tan’s paintings, one can see calligraphic texts, drawings and a number of seal prints, all of which are essential in contributing to the complete composition of the work.31 For example, in his art work Letting Go At Heart, the portrait of an old Indian man is framed by Tan’s seals and calligraphy. Tan’s combination of the three elements not only allowed him to complete the spatial composition of the work, but also gave him full expression of his thoughts, thus displaying his combined artistic skills.

Tan continued to find inspiration for his works from things around him and strove to express his own individual style through established art mediums.

Tan Kian Por passed away on 16 August 2019 in Sengkang Hospital. He had been bedridden for two and a half years following a stroke.