The significance of this Untitled work by Cheong Laitong, one of the precocious stars of the Wednesday Art Group, was that it was shown in a solo exhibition held at architect-gallerist Chen Voon Fee’s Gallery 11, now defunct, in Kuala Lumpur. “The exhibition opened at Gallery 11 on May 13, 1969, at 3pm. At 7pm, the racial riot started,” recalled Cheong, who had two previous solos, in 1966 and 1968. A solo exhibition by Latiff Mohidin immediately followed after this group show. But unlike the internecine racial strife that followed, Cheong’s work of an imaginary landscape is one of phlegmatic calm with a centrifugal bloc of interest demarcated by two coloured spheres, the darker one in the bottom half. Streaky lines protruding from it signals a transgression of space. In Modern Artists of Malaysia (Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1983), Redza Piyadasa commented on the “transference of calligraphic techniques into the medium of oil painting” in a 1965 work, Life, Public and Private. An Untitled large 1968 work, measuring 80cm x 243cm (diptych) hammered for RM67,200 in the Henry Butcher April 13, 2014, auction. Cheong Laitong emerged from the Wednesday Art Group founded by Peter Harris in 1952, and was made its president. He took part in the USIS Exchange scholarship at the Skowhegan School of Art in the United States in 1960, which was followed by a stint at the LCC Central Art School in London in 1961. But his work at Rothmans of Pall Mall (Malaysia) first as creative director (1963-1992) and then regional creative director of its Asia-Pacific region (1992-1995) saw a hiatus until his 1981 comeback solo at Universiti Malaya. It was another decade before he became active again – Galeri Wan (1991 and 1995), and NN Gallery (1998). His biggest achievements were his winning 1st Prize in oil and acrylic in the Salon Malaysia in 1969 and 1979. He won a major award in the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank mural competition in 1962. He was included in major Malaysian exhibitions abroad including the Commonwealth Art Today in London (1962-1963); Malaysian Art touring Europe (1965-1966); 1st Triennial of Contemporary World Art, New Delhi (1968); the Sao Paulo Biennale (1969); and Man And His World in Montreal, Canada (1970).