Lim Tze Peng (Chinese: 林子平 Lin Ziping was born in 1921, he is a Singaporean artist who is a teacher by training and profession. He was awarded a Cultural Medallion in 2003 in recognition of his contribution to the country’s art and culture.
Lim Tze Peng turned 100 in September 2021. His is an extraordinary life, one that really started only when he reached the ripe old age of 80. He is best known as the artist who painted, on location, several ink versions of the old Chinatown and Singapore River. He is also well respected for his ability with words, or more accurately, the Chinese character. Executed in Chinese ink, his unique stroke is admired by calligraphers even in China, and his innovation in calligraphy has contributed to new ways of appreciating and practising the age-old institution of writing.
On reaching 100, he has focused on a new genre: abstract. While he has done abstracts before, they are now bigger, bolder and more colourful. This May, he will reveal his new abstracts in an exhibition that will showcase these never-been-shown before works. The exhibition is timed to coincide with the release of a book on his life and work called “Soul of Ink”.
The book chronicles two loves, an 80-year-old love with his wife, the other, an 80-year-old love with art.