Maurice Denis wrote: “What voluptuousness… so like the seduction of the violins in the overture to (Wagner’s) Tannhauser.” (Definition of Neotraditionism, 1890). Denis’s comment of the Mona Lisa nicely fits Eng Tay’s Jubilation II sculpture of a muse rapt in her own violin play, her head tilted all the way back to emphasis enrapturement and sensuality. It’s an Aphrodite remanifested, or more to his Asian roots though nationality in Eng Tay’s figures is decidedly ambiguous, the Tang femme fatale Yang Kuei-fei, after the better endowed features of the Renoir types. Her supple hips act as a bedrock of stability with propitious child-bearing potential. The lines follow classical sculpture antecedents with Eng Tay’s bias towards sensuous feminine forms and a sense of movement with a waft of musicality. The figure is clad in a loose-flowing but figure-hugging dress. Eng Tay is inspired to create this, which is one of his more popular marque-sized sculpture series in bronze with this being No. 17th in an edition of 25, by a fortuitous musical performance one hot summer night in Washington Square Park in New York, where he has been based since 1969. Eng Tay is an American-Malaysian icon with his Soo-Piengish figure types which he defines and refines over the years into endearing standalone and family-type figures, first in his prints and then canvases, huge canvases and sculptures. He had also done works in ceramics. His tutelage was in the Art Students League, the New York School of Visual Arts and the Pratt Graphics Centre, and he first worked as a graphic designer before deciding to become a fulltime artist travelling all over the world for visual research. He boasts of nearly 100 culminating in his major retrospective accorded by Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, in 2009. His monumental sculptures adorn the Kiaraville SENI Condominiums in Mont Kiara and the Zehn condominium in Pantai Hills and his works are collected by, among others, the Fukuyama Museum of Art, Hiroshima in Japan; the Frankie Valli Estate (United States); the Merv Griffin Estate (United States); the New York University and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.