27 November 2017, Day at the National Gallery Singapore
The National Gallery of Singapore was on the verge of opening last time I was here two years ago. It is an amazing triumph, fusing the old Supreme Court sand City Hall.
The Supreme Court has three floors of galleries devoted to South East Asian Art. The City Hall houses temporary exhibitions as well as the Galleries of Singapore Art. Frankly is was more than a day's worth of viewing. Quite apart from the art in the galleries, there is the architecture of the building(s) and the views from the decks at the top.
I started with the South East Asia galleries. This is a chronological exhibition, starting from the early nineteenth century. So everything was in the context of a Western intrusion in some shape or form. The first galleries showed early art by Asian artists or Western artists on Asia with the former keen to produce the sort or art wanted by westerners,
For example,
The story then moved to art that was more in protest against colonialism such as the Indonisian artist Sudibio's 'To you people of Yogya'
and 'Blood of War' by the Vietnamese artist Le Huy Tiep
And Tran Trung Tin's 'Mother holds her child's hand'
before moving to protest against oppressive regimes.For example 'Very, very happy victims' by the Indonisian Agung Kurniawan
and Kinupot by Edgar Talusan Fernandez from the Philippines, alluding to the abduction of activists as well as to censorship under the Marcos regime
before becoming abstract. The final galleries were within the international modernist. This is by Redza Piadasa who studied at Hornsey College of Art with fellow artist Sulaiman Esa.
and post-modern movements. For example, David Medalla's Cloud Canyons No. 24
Conceptual art is well represented in Montien Boonma's 'The pleasure of being, crying, dying and eating which relates to the Buddhists' worldview.
These included the political and dark - e.g., The Cambodian artist Svay Ken's 'Monthly mandatory meeting', representing life under the Khmer Rouge.
as well as more straight protest.
Night Visitors by Ha Tri Hieu
Asia was often reflected in the subject such as this tin mine in Ipoh by Georgette Chen
or the technique such as this use of Batik in the Malaysian artist Chuah Thean Teng's 'Morning'.
I was struck by the large number of Vietnamese in these later galleries.
The Singapore galleries followed approximately the same progression, with an emphasis on the modern.
that had evolved from more conventional 1960's art such as Three Movements byDamrong Wong-Uparaj.
The other permanent exhibitions were three linked galleries containing mainly Chinese art. First was the Xiu Hai Lou collection of Chinese painting and calligraphy.It included some lovely older Chinese paintings such as 'Visiting a friend in the pine valley'.
Next was the art of Wu Guanzhong with painting in both a Chinese and Western formaat. The final gallery contained Chen Chong Swee's similarly Western / Chinese art.
The temporary blockbuster was an extensive exhibition entitled 'Colours of Impressionism', relying largely on loans from the Musee d'Orsay. It was a really interesting exhibition, telling the story of the influence of the analysis/theory of colour on impressionism and how different phases seemed to feature particular colours.
Finally, there was an exhibition of two artists - the Indonisian Raden Saleh.and the Filipino Juan Luna.
The former mixed the horrid with the more gentle (e.g., Mail station at the bottom of Mt. Megamendung)
The latter was clearly influenced by the Spanish Academy and reminded me of the works in Alicante's MUBAG. - For example, El Flautista (1883)
.
The Supreme Court has three floors of galleries devoted to South East Asian Art. The City Hall houses temporary exhibitions as well as the Galleries of Singapore Art. Frankly is was more than a day's worth of viewing. Quite apart from the art in the galleries, there is the architecture of the building(s) and the views from the decks at the top.
I started with the South East Asia galleries. This is a chronological exhibition, starting from the early nineteenth century. So everything was in the context of a Western intrusion in some shape or form. The first galleries showed early art by Asian artists or Western artists on Asia with the former keen to produce the sort or art wanted by westerners,
For example,
The story then moved to art that was more in protest against colonialism such as the Indonisian artist Sudibio's 'To you people of Yogya'
before becoming abstract. The final galleries were within the international modernist. This is by Redza Piadasa who studied at Hornsey College of Art with fellow artist Sulaiman Esa.
and post-modern movements. For example, David Medalla's Cloud Canyons No. 24
Conceptual art is well represented in Montien Boonma's 'The pleasure of being, crying, dying and eating which relates to the Buddhists' worldview.
Night Visitors by Ha Tri Hieu
Asia was often reflected in the subject such as this tin mine in Ipoh by Georgette Chen
or the technique such as this use of Batik in the Malaysian artist Chuah Thean Teng's 'Morning'.
I was struck by the large number of Vietnamese in these later galleries.
The Singapore galleries followed approximately the same progression, with an emphasis on the modern.
that had evolved from more conventional 1960's art such as Three Movements byDamrong Wong-Uparaj.
The other permanent exhibitions were three linked galleries containing mainly Chinese art. First was the Xiu Hai Lou collection of Chinese painting and calligraphy.It included some lovely older Chinese paintings such as 'Visiting a friend in the pine valley'.
Next was the art of Wu Guanzhong with painting in both a Chinese and Western formaat. The final gallery contained Chen Chong Swee's similarly Western / Chinese art.
The temporary blockbuster was an extensive exhibition entitled 'Colours of Impressionism', relying largely on loans from the Musee d'Orsay. It was a really interesting exhibition, telling the story of the influence of the analysis/theory of colour on impressionism and how different phases seemed to feature particular colours.
Finally, there was an exhibition of two artists - the Indonisian Raden Saleh.and the Filipino Juan Luna.
The former mixed the horrid with the more gentle (e.g., Mail station at the bottom of Mt. Megamendung)
The latter was clearly influenced by the Spanish Academy and reminded me of the works in Alicante's MUBAG. - For example, El Flautista (1883)
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