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Illumination
by Yeo Hoe Koon
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Exhibition: 10 to 17 July 2011, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m
Venue: Muse House, 22 Marshall Road, Singapore 424858
Visit: By appointment Tel: 97727852
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It is doubly problematic to reflect on contemporary art in a society
such as Singapore where the forces of modernity, pseudo-traditions and
historicity assert their relentlessly conflicting pull. On the one
hand, the knowledgeable among Singapore artists work in a so-called
Post-Art Era, producing works of "art after the End of Art", charging
their products with inflexible hubris and angst. Messengers like the
American philosopher-turned-art-critic, Arther C. Danto, were not in a
position to "part the water" when they proclaimed "the End of Art",
merely strewing insurmountable "historicities" on the path forward.
If you are oblivious of this, dream on (many do).
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The critical problematique, apart from this "End of Art" historicity, involves another set of historicity peculiar to a former colony of imperialism compounded by what has been euphemistically celebrated as a history of multiculturalism. Singaporean artists of the younger generation must be working under the dark cloud of the worst case of cultural identity crisis this side of 1945.
Why should one continue to produce paintings in an age or at least a period in which "painting is dead" has been solemnly declared by none other than the painters themselves? This line of self-inquiry may be as valid for the older generation of artists as for the younger. Could it be that, after the anarchistic interregnum of market-dictated fashions and ideology-induced movements, art, or at least a section of artists has finally come to the realization that art-works should not be here to be analysed, philosophized and ideologized, as Hegel would have it, but merely to be felt? Artworks, are they saying, should not be capitalized as Art, as they were back in the age of the History of Art, but merely be regarded as art, with a small a, as it was in the age before the History of Art.
We may further pursue along this line of inquiry and arrive at a point where it is tenable to hold that painting is as basic and essential as language and poetry, and as such, its position in the system of human expression and communication could never be eroded.
For paintings to be felt, they have to be invested with feelings by the painter in the first place. For painters to do that, they need to have a healthy metaphysical respect for the boundaries of the canvas (or piece of rice-paper) within whose confines they must work. Hoe Koon is one such painter. He belongs to the wave of young artists, now designated as the Second Generation, who made their way to Paris to cut their teeth on their art in the late Fifties and early Sixties of the last century. They brought home with them the fauvist's visual idiom, colour value and brushwork as well as an elan vita and freshness of outlook. Of the pack, Hoe Koon stands out for his tenacity and firmness of purpose and has had much to show for having weathered the grim reception thrown his way by an unappreciative market-place. He is a survivor par excellence. And an outstanding painter of the first order.
Over five eventful decades, Hoe Koon has produced a remarkable body of
work, staged countless one-man shows and joint exhibitions and won
acclaim all round. This latest show, offering his recent works, has
been eagerly anticipated. Hoe Koon's palette is as vivacious as ever,
only broken by swath of dark hues of black and somber blue, to suggest
an innate balance brought about by a sense of peace after a long,
stormy struggle. The overall abstract compositions are more often
than not anchored onto some vestige of reality such as a landscape,
providing a sentient connection with the viewer. The masterful use of
dapples of silvery white, in spots and patches, imparts flashes of
illuminations across the viewer's retinae triggering vibrant emotions
of transient delight. Hoe Koon has been experimenting in the
Chinese-ink-and-brush medium with great success, granting the viewer
with the roving perspective over a dark-as-wine panorama. We find,
amongst the fine exhibits of the show, such strong paintings as "Masa
Depan", "From Vietnam with Love" and "Song of Nostalgia" and should go
away with quiet satisfaction.
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