It is indeed a happy occasion that the youthful French lady, Mdm. Katherine A. Schmid Audeoud and the home-grown Chinese youth, Ng Eng Teng, under the banner of local artists, are holding a joint exhibition.
Mdm. Schmid-Audeoud was born in France, and has been residing with her husband in Singapore for about ten years. She is lively by nature, full of artistic talent, and has always loved to use her spare time in art activities. Be it sculpture, mosaic, or painting, these are engaged with passionately. Since learning under Mr. Chen Wen Hsi for several years, she has achieved some capacity for Chinese painting. In her composition of the paintings and the application of colours, she shows her love of nature and a deep understanding of the means and ways that nature is transformed and expressed on paper in Chinese painting. Hence, in her Chinese paintings an inclination towards the real and the emotional can be felt. Although she maintains the influence of Wen Hsi's style, her understanding of the means of expression and her attitudes towards her search are admirable. She had spoken about these understandings to the reporters of 'Women's World' magazine, and it seems to be quite thorough. It is truly remarkable that a European lady can have such intimate feelings towards nature. Based on these attitudes, I believe that it is not difficult for finer developments. Her western paintings are realist, simple but gracious. What is special are her mosaic compositions. This is based on designed patterns, which are then inlaid with chips of appropriate shapes and colours , forming elegant and beautiful household items. As these mosaics must be bought from Italy and their prices are high, they hence cannot reach the masses. However, they are worthy of recommendation for beautifying interiors.
Ng Eng Teng received an English-language education, and is conversant in graphic design, oils and sculpture. A graduate of NAFA, he won the first prize in the Tagore Centenary Open Painting Competition and was selected to participate at the UNESCO International Poster Competition. His oils are mainly realist, but are also expressionist in nature. His portraits, people, scenery, all reach a culmination in his sculpture works, for they display the multi-faceted characteristics of realism, expressionism and abstraction. In his early years, he used plaster-of-paris as a medium. Recently, he ventured to create fired-clay and ceramic works, and experimented on creating busts and form studies from ciment fondu. In the realist busts, the likenesses emanate subtle expressions of thought and emotion.His expressive human forms tease out exaggerations, reaching an intense expression of the mood portrayed. In his abstract works are found carefree, reckless expressions, amidst the sombre contents. These patient, studied works and their intrepid expressions are enough for us to name him, without a doubt, as a fine sculptor of Malaya. Eng Teng will soon depart for London to study the making of ceramics. I believe that this is not only a search for the requisite technical skills, but one which will also be beneficial to the furthering of art. This exhibition has hence become a commemoration of his works before his departure.
These two young artists have tirelessly practiced on all kinds of mediums. Based on personal understandings of art, they have sculpted, painted and created their works. Their decision to incorporate both realms of pure and applied arts into their artistic life are especially firm and valuable ones. I sincerely wish that their joint exhibition can be highly successful!
Exhibition of Paintings, Sculptures by Katherine A. Schmid-Audeoud and Ng Eng Teng Singapore, 1962, unpaginated.
Translated from Chinese by Lai Chee Kien
Last updated: 11 January 2001