Making sense of the World through art

Artist Siew Hock Meng

- Clement Yong

Informed that he is to receive the Cultural Medallion, pioneer portraitist Siew Hock Meng's instinctive reaction is a bland shrug.

At 82 years old, the self-professed "arrogant man" thinks it is only natural that he should be conferred the highest cultural award in the land. After painting for more than four decades, "I deserve it," he says in Mandarin.

"Frankly, I am already very old, so there were no surprises there."

On an occasion that many artists would consider the most significant in their lifetime, Siew, self-assured and plain-speaking, is matter-of-fact about his skill.

Yet, he is also candid about the limited impact his art has managed to have on society, a pragmatism which might have to do with the eclecticism of his life experience. Unlike many of his generation, he came to painting late, almost as a last resort at the age of 37.

Before that, Siew led a bohemian life.

He first sought answers to his questions on individual purpose and society in a Johor rubber plantation as a rubber tapper, a months-long stint that was followed by a brief foray into the Labour Party of Malaya.

Then, for some years in his 20s and 30s, he dreamt of wealth, joining several ventures in unrelated fields - from the wholesale of eggs and mining and prospecting to painting posters and breeding tropical fish.

For a man who was coached by the esteemed Cheong Soo Pieng for a year at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Nafa) in his schooling years, this circuitous journey seems almost wilful.

But Siew says he was frustrated at the lack of "philosophical basis" in his art education.