Hock-Aun Teh was born into a Chinese family in Taiping, a city in Western Malaysia, in 1950. Between 1966 and 1970 he studied traditional Chinese calligraphy locally at the Tan Guan Hin Chinese Painting School. Arriving in Scotland in 1970, in 1974 he became the first Asian graduate of Glasgow School of Art's Drawing and Painting Department; since then he has primarily remained living and working in the UK, both as an artist and a martial arts exponent of international repute.
Painter Hock-Aun Teh was born into a Chinese family in Taiping, a city in Western Malaysia in 1950. He grew up in a remote jungle village, and was by background and upbringing essentially Chinese, with ancestral roots in Fujian, a province in south eastern China. Originally trained in traditional Chinese ink painting, he focused on subjects in nature, such as birds, bamboo, flowers, and landscapes with waterfalls. However, feeling that he was restricted by painting sparrows flitting through foliage, and that the art curriculum at traditional schools in Taiping was too basic, Teh studied Chinese Painting under the Penang-born artist Tan Guan Hin at Hua Lian High School in Taiping between 1966 and 1970. During his four years of study, he immersed himself in the world of traditional Chinese calligraphy, a technique that he continues to apply in his work today.
Teh came to the UK in 1970 to study painting at Glasgow School of Art (the exact date of his gaining British citizenship is currently unconfirmed). As a student, he felt particularly liberated by western Abstract Expressionism, which itself partially sprung from East Asian Zen philosophy. In 1974 Teh became the first Asian graduate of the School's Drawing and Painting Department, where he later returned to work as a lecturer, also teaching for the Scottish Art Council (predecessor to CreativeScotland). However, the fixed routine of a 9 to 5 job held little appeal for Teh, thus he left his alma mater in 1979 to fully dedicate himself to painting, a task which was initially challenging: '[...] In the early days I even went out to the countryside, and knocked on doors of farmers, asking if they wanted me to draw their farms!' he recalls 'And they'd feel sorry for me, and go "would you like to paint my dog instead?"' In 1980 he was awarded a commendation of merit at the Robert Colquhoun Memorial Exhibition in Glasgow. His main sources of inspiration continue to be 'experiences in Scotland and his regular travels around the world, particularly to the Far East' (Patrick Davies). Much of his art interprets Chinese myth and folklore. Teh's long term inspiration is also informed by an ancient style of calligraphy known as Kuang Cao ('Mad Grass') from the Tang Dynasty, in which 'scribes attacked large sheets of paper with vigorous strokes' (Spalding, 2010, p. 201). This artistic influence echoes his extreme mastery of martial arts which release energy in the body: the action of leaping is analogous to the movement of wielding a paintbrush. With a unique way of looking at things, in his canvases, Teh marries the spontaneity and expressive freedom found in the most highly prized Tang calligraphic masters with the vivid, punchy colours and unconventional materials of Abstract Expressionism. Though Teh's artistic practice is often classified in the West as Abstract Expressionist, the harmonious blend of cultures, nevertheless, brings a considerable distinction to his paintings. In recent years, Teh has turned his attention to sculpture, working in materials including steel and bronze, resulting in several large-scale public commissions in mainland China, including a piece for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, sited close to the Herzog & de Meuron stadium.
Teh has garnered international acclaim during his more than 45 year artistic career in the UK. He was selected by the Foreign Office for the My British series of documentary films in 1995, and two years later he was commissioned by Artists for Nature Foundation to travel to India to paint Bengal tigers in the wild; the resulting work toured internationally. Exhibitions of his works have been held worldwide, in cities including Glasgow, Edinburgh and Beijing. In addition to the attention and long-standing support from the art dealer Patrick Davies, Teh's works have also found favour with Hollywood icons, such as the late Sean Connery (originally from Scotland) and the late British actor, Richard Griffiths. Teh's work is represented in UK public collections, particularly in Scotland, including Museums Glasgow, with archive material held by the Glasgow Print Studio Archive. In late 2020
Teh was to feature in the solo exhibition, Leaping Across the World at The Glasgow School of Art; this was, however, postponed due to the pandemic. Hock-Aun Teh continues to live and work in Glasgow, but regularly returns to Asia for inspiration. In parallel with his artistic career, Teh is also a grandmaster in the martial art, Tukido, founding a dedicated school in Glasgow in 1974 and the Scottish Tae Kwon Do Association in 1979.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Hock-Aun Teh]
Publications related to [Hock-Aun Teh] in the Ben Uri Library