A significant major early batik by Dato’ Chuah Thean Teng has returned to our shores. It was first shown at the Commonwealth Institute in the United Kingdom in 1959. Teng, as he is popularly known, transformed the millenia crafts tradition into fine art in 1953, and held the first solo of his batik art at the Arts Council in Penang in 1955. Teng was to show at the Commonwealth Institute again in 1965 and in 1977 was the only Malaysian invited to show among the greats in the Commonwealth Artists of Fame exhibition in London marking Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee. He is known for his Mother & Child theme – a devotion to his beloved mother. The two figures with conical hats seem happy to be working on the paddy fields, and Teng injects some wry humour as usual, showing the shadows around the eyes like the Mask of Zorro. Dato’ Chuah Thean Teng is a world acclaimed art legend, dubbed the ‘Father of Batik Painting’ by the then Singapore-based Professor Michael Sullivan (Chinese Art in the 20th Century, 1959). The Penang State Government awarded him the Dato’ title in 1998, the Living Heritage status in 2005, and a Retrospective in 1994 (Penang State Art Gallery). He was also given a Retrospective by the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, in 1965, and a Memorial Exhibition in 2008. He was trained in art at the Xiamen (Amoy) Art Institute, China (uncompleted), and moved to Penang in 1926. He set up his batik museum, Yahong Art Gallery, Batu Ferringhi, in 1974, from its earlier base in Leith Street in 1953. Images of two of his works, Two Of A Kind and Tell You A Secret, were chosen for UNICEF’s greeting cards in 1968 and 1988 respectively. Since auctions started in Malaysia in 2010 (Henry Butcher), Teng’s works have hit six digits seven times, the highest being a premium of RM176,000 in the Henry Butcher October 2012 auction.