What else besides Nanyang art? (original) (raw)

Singaporean Visual Arts in the 1970s

This Master's thesis analyzes the relationship between visual art genres in 1970s Singapore and the nation's economic and socio-political development. The author examines how the government's focus on rapid economic growth and nation-building, alongside its efforts to cultivate a specific national image, influenced artistic styles. Three main genres are identified: art reflecting national progress, art evoking nostalgic escapes from modernity, and modern abstract art. The analysis includes detailed discussions of specific artworks and artists, showcasing the interplay between artistic expression and the broader societal context. The study highlights the nascent art ecosystem of the time, including its challenges and limited support.

Singapore Art History as a History of Mobilities

Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History, 2022

Moving away from the study of the history of art using place-bound and ‘rational’ terms, this article examines how the different forms of mobilities practiced by Singaporean artists have shaped their artworks, practices and identities. This is achieved through a study of artists who practiced ‘unconventional’ forms of mobilities: Suzann Victor, an ‘unofficial exile’ who moved to Sydney due to the fallout from the Brother Cane incident, which made it difficult for her to continue to practice in Singapore; Jimmy Ong, who shifted his practice to the United States to lead a “domestic life” with his former husband and Gilles Massot, a French-born artist who moved to Singapore to become an “Other.” Specifically, the paper seeks to answer: What are the different types of mobilities practiced by the artists? How do these mobilities impact their practice? How are these mobilities and their impacts perceptible in the artworks? What are the ways that these mobilities differ from the ones that are typically studied in canonical art history? In this paper, the artworks are studied as ‘fluid spaces’ that are shaped by the myriad forms of mobilities practiced by the artists – many of which cannot be described as completely ‘rational – rather than the product of a single form of mobility. The aim is to shift our study of art away from place-bound and ‘rational’ concepts towards the transience of the artists and the borderless nature of artistic influences and ideologies.

Local art and the postcolonial Singaporean identity

This paper looks at several artists and genres of art in Singapore from the 1990s to the 21st century as a starting block to analyse and investigate perspectives on the Singaporean identity. This essay will relate themes such as race, gender and cosmopolitanism to identity construction. Local art becomes a lens to encounter the multiplicity of interpretations and tensions that emerge with a postcolonial identity.

Pictorialism and Modernity in Singapore, 1950-1960

Southeast of Now, 2018

This essay investigates the practice of pictorial photography in Singapore from 1950-1960. It avoids a modernist art discourse that has traditionally positioned pictorialism in opposition to modern photography and argues that in Singapore at least pictorialism marked the start of a modern practice of photography that was predicated on the notion of a fully self-conscious and autonomous art form. Drawing upon John Clark’s study of the transmission and transformation of stylistic practices from Europe and America to Asia in his book Modern Asian Art (1998), this essay considers Singapore’s particular social and political situation to explain how pictorialism’s associated practices changed in the new context.

Art and Politics in Singapore: Beyond LKY at VWFA

Asian Art Newspaper, London, 2010

A ugust is flag month in Singapore. As nationalist fever -genuine or co-opted-grips the city-state, the island's centres of culture, like its malls, play up the high-summer theme as they do Christmas and the lunar New Year.