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IMPORTANT SECOND-GENERATION
ARTISTS SERIES (5)
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29 Oct 2006 - 12 Nov 2006
(12pm -- 8pm)
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This series of 5 exhibitions recognizes artists who have been instrumental in shaping the development of Art in Singapore.
The objectives of the series are :-
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- To bring attention to artists of distinction.
- To encourage excellence in art.
- To encourage support and patronage for art and artists.
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The final of this series of five exhibitions features three top realist artists namely Choo Keng Kwang, Chua Mia Tee and Siew Hock Meng and two artists, Foo Chee San and Tan Tee Chie who are currently experimenting in contemporary Chinese ink painting in the representational style. Except for Siew Hock Meng who is the youngest in the group, the other artists have over sixty years involvement in art.
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Tan Tee Chie
In the early years of Singapore Art development, when Singapore Art was emerging gradually in the 1950s and 1960s, Tan Tee Chie’s contribution in his capacity as an art educator and artist was significant. When he graduated from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1951, the Principal, Mr. Lim Hak Tai persuaded him to join the academic staff. For over two decades his duties at the Academy were all encompassing: grooming students in sketching, watercolour, oil painting, Chinese ink painting, art history and administration work.
Tan was one of the earliest among Singapore artists to immerse himself in depth in the extensive possibilities, in the fascinating phenomenon of the fusion of eastern and western artistic enterprises. He fused techniques in his paintings and in concepts, in his constant search for ideas. Tan’s ambition was to blend not just simple, obvious technical devices but to combine yet undiscovered technical possibilities and the inspirations, which drive the art. His own strategy for artistic fusion is that he can go beyond the perimeters of the artwork – techniques, materials, medium – to encompass culture, history, sociology, literature, nature. For him, Chinese culture or tradition must remain the pivoting point. The task is capturing the essence of the overall inspiration. Tan’s culminating approach is reflected in his current artistic endeavours.
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Foo Chee San
In his capacity both as a painter and an art educator, Foo Chee San’s contribution in the overall development of the Singapore art scene is of significance.
Perhaps Foo’s most notable contribution as a painter and art educator is his ongoing involvement in the Ministry of Education in-service courses for art teachers through which he passionately instills in them the intricacies of the fascinating, if elusive art of Chinese ink painting. The growing number of teachers emerging from these courses – now in their third decade – continues to cultivate this mode of painting as well as share creative insights with students.
Foo through the years has worked in oils, Chinese ink, woodcut prints and the demanding art of lacquer ware, which he learnt in Japan. It is to Chinese ink painting that he devotes most of his artistic involvement – practicing it, assessing it, consolidating it. The ink paintings of recent years reflect an ambitious phase in his art development: to take his painting to a higher peak by galvanizing his experiences, insights and his hard-earned command of ink techniques. The fresh possibilities – never encountered before, energize him.
In this fifth Important Second-Generation Artists Exhibition presented by DLR Gallery, Foo is represented by his most recent paintings – four ink paintings on his favourite theme, the Kampong Scene. Besides their paradox of intricacies and impact, they possess other crucial strengths: the immediacy of ink play and density from determined probing.
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Chua Mia Tee
In the realm of realism art in the oil medium, Chua Mia Tee is the personification of the all-encompassing exponent – consummate in technical skills, wide-ranging in themes, consistent in performance perpetual in renewal.
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Chua’s talent as a painter emerged early. “Workers in a Canteen, 1974” was painted when he was a young artist, yet all the imperatives of genre depicting social realism are there. The vivid realism reflects his superb technical command and his exceptional grasp of the visual drama of light and dark, the sharp authenticity reflects his observation powers and the spirited vigor mirrors his insight into the subject. What partly makes Chua a remarkable and consummate painter of realism is that whatever the theme he is confronted with, he has the capacity to infuse in the work the full force of the theme’s possibilities despite the fact that charismatic themes bring uniquely demanding problems.
In recent years Chua has been honoured with commissions to paint several remarkable personalities. Notably, these include several presidents and dignitaries of the Republic of Singapore. In these portraitures, Chua went far beyond his technical virtuosity, resorting to his acumen, flair and instinct to captivate the character and spirit of the inner person of the personalities.
Despite landscape painting posing sharply different problems, Chua is equally consummate in his approach. “Genting Highlands” is an exemplary example. Through the technique of layering, Chua succeeds in giving the work an enduring quality.
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Choo Keng Kwang
Choo Keng Kwang’s enthralling all-encompassing commitment in the realm of oil painting is awe-inspiring. Ever expanding the scope of his artistic endeavours, he relentlessly stretches the possibilities in all directions: composition arrangements, painting techniques, colour exaltation, romance, history, classicism, visual symbolism, auspicious events, ethnic lifestyles, architecture, atmospheric light and sheer pulsations of everyday energy.
The celebrated Chinatown Series, which emerged in the 1970s, was Choo’s first stupendous series. Determined to go beyond
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the stereotype Chinatown depictions, quickly stretched various dimensions: he penetrated into Chinatown’s history to trace its roots and transformation, interacted with the locals to sense their motivations and soaked into the atmospheric light. “New Year Celebration” is a notable work. To captivate the visual drama of Chinatown, under Choo’s brush, no visual detail, no nuance in human gestures, no visual resonance, which heightens the atmosphere, is spared.
Revealing another facet of his considerable talent, he embarked on his second extensive series, “the Doves” series in late 1980s. Inspired by the enduring serene purity of the classical paintings of China’s Song Dynasty, Choo explores the seductive power of such apparently stark and simple elements as the interplay of space and volume, harmonious subtleties, nature’s grandeur, auspicious symbolism, classical pictorial values.
Currently, the theme which seizes Choo’s imagination is Bali. Typically, he is embroiled in the irresistible natural beauty and her exotic life-style in order to create paintings with a heightened pitch. These will be enthralling compositions captivating the overpowering visual enchantment so uniquely Bali. These are riveting visual dramas which hold Choo spellbound.
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Siew Hock Meng
For a staggering two decades, Siew Hock Meng has been a powerful force amidst a growing cluster of serious exponents in the demanding art of portraiture. Siew’s notable achievement was his liberalization of portraiture art by transforming the stereotype notion that successful portraiture is the outcome of sheer technical competence to one resulting from a creative process of perpetual search and discovery. To Siew, the artist’s acumen, flair, judgment and instinct are imperatives.
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From 1980s through 1990s, Siew’s reputation as an outstanding portrait artist soared. Portrait commissions flooded in from Singapore, Taiwan and Indonesia. His contemporaries were amazed how he was able to cope with the commissions, captivating with typical panache and vigour the characters of the wide-ranging personalities, in vivid, resonating facial expressions.
In the 1990s, Siew embarked on his next stupendous artistic adventure – the extensive Idyllic Bali Series. It was intended to be an all-encompassing exercise of towering proportions and overwhelming scale, which challenged the artist in every crucial sphere of his figurative art. The artist’s sharp perception to reflect authenticity, his innovative powers to maintain a sense of renewal, his robust stamina to complete the daunting series and his exceptional technical command to achieve the finesse – all these are imperatives. The result: a resounding success.
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Writeup by:
W. Y. Choy
Artist
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