Highlights of Southeast Asian Collection
Ongoing
The second hanging of this exhibition assembles works from the Museum’s collection and pieces borrowed from institutional and private collectors. Trajectories in modern art are investigated through seven thematic sections: Genesis: Art & Art Collecting; Vision & Place-Making; Picturing Nanyang; Social Realism & Lyricism; Encountering Southeast Asia; Contemporary Trajectories and Singapore Abstraction.
Genesis: Art & Art Collecting trace the development of the Museum’s Southeast Asian Collection. Started in 1955 by Michael Sullivan, the Museum’s first curator, this section maps out the inception of the collection and the styles and conventions he may have encountered. Through the works of Charles Dyce, W.M. Clyde, Yong Mun Sen and Suri Mohyani, Vision & Place-Making examines how Malaya was imagined and constructed by artists in the colonial period and looks at the existence of particular types of artistic visions prevalent in pictorial representations of the area.
The Nanyang Style has come to be synonymous with certain artists, art styles and with the birth of modern art in Singapore. Picturing Nanyang probes the palpability of this categorization and also explores the place of female artists such as Georgette Chen, Sunyee and Lai Foong Moi within this context. In Social Realism & Lyricism, woodcut prints demonstrate a variety of responses to social events ranging from the critical to the lyrical.
Encountering Southeast Asia contains visual productions inspired by the people, places and cultures of Southeast Asia. Contemporary Trajectories present a series of material and practice-based engagements ranging from Raja Shariman’s use of metal, Eng Tow’s acrylic-dye on textile to Mohammed Din Mohammed’s installation with indigenous materials. The late 1960s and 70s marked the rise of abstract art in Singapore. The last section on Singapore Abstraction features the works of artists, most of whom had received further art education overseas.
Raja Shariman
Gerak Tempur No. 27 (1999)
Metal
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