TAN TEE CHIE - Brobak Birds Competition

Tan Tee Chie ( Singapore ) - Brobak Birds Competition ,1966 ,woodcut


About the Artist : Tan Tee Chie was a graduate from NAFA in 1951 and became a lecturer there.


Brobak Birds Competition : 


-Documents an Asian pastime: bird competitions were, and still are in some places, a form of entertainment. The birds are judged on their singing abilities, and as birds are eliminated from the competition their cages are removed from their stands.
-Singapore still has these competitions regularly
-Is a way to document the everyday and to preserve traditions for future generations.


About woodcut : Woodcut is a type of printmaking technique where the artist removes the areas that he/she wants to keep white. The ink is applied only to highest surface on the block of wood, or those NOT carved away. Typically, artists will use line (like hatching and crosshatching in ink, except that they would carve away what they want to be white) to create values and depth, although Tan Tee Chie's woodcut is relatively flat lacking in tonal values.

NYOMAN NUARTA - Rush Hour

Nyoman Nuarta ( Indonesia ) - Rush Hour ,1992 ,brass and copper


About the Artist : Nuarta, one of the most well known sculptors in Indonesia, was born in Bali in
1953. He joined the Faculty of Fine  Art and Design, Bandung Institute of
Technology in 1973 and graduated in 1979. When he was still a student, his
works invited controversy because, against the advice of his professors, he
chose mimetic representation as the basic concept of his sculpture, while the art
academy favored a kind of modernism that produced semi-abstract sculptures –
emphasizing the search for the base essence of a subject rather than depicting it
as it might actually look.  To the teachers in Nuarta time, they thought they were
presenting a new idea in this emphasis of the abstract. To Nuarta, he wanted to
take what was real and re-represent it in a way that challenged tradition and
communicated to a future audience.  He was actually at the forefront of Indonesia
contemporary art movement

Rush Hour : cyclists are depicted hastily peddling against the wind.  They are
caught in a moment of full speed pursuit.  Featured in an endless physical quest;
rushing, yet not arriving anywhere.  They are wholly focused on their goal of
moving ahead. Symbolically, one way of interpreting this piece is as a metaphor
for modernism .

CHUA MIA TEE - Workers in a Canteen

Chua Mia Tee ( Singapore ) - Workers in a Canteen ,1974 ,oil on canvas


About the Artist :
-Born in Shantou, Guangdong Province, China in 1931
-In 1947, he enrolled in Chung Cheng High School but left school mid-way to pursue a formal arts education at the     Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA).
-He received training in drawing, sketching with watercolour and painting, both with oils on canvas and with Chinese ink and colours on paper from NAFA director Lim Hak Tai and artists Cheong Soo Pieng, Koh Tong Leong and See Hiang To.
-Graduated from NAFA in 1952.
-Is one of Singapore's foremost realist painter. He is best known for his oil paintings which depict Singapore's vanishing traditional urban landscape. He is also a much sought-after portrait artist who has painted several prominent businessmen and politicians in Singapore, including Singapore's past and present presidents. National Language Class (1959) and Workers in the Canteen (1974) are two of his oft-discussed works.
-His drawings REFLECTS on life.


Workers in a Canteen : Through the painting of the workers in the Jurong Shipyard, Chua Mia Tee aims to highlight and salute the contributions of the working class to the young nation’s program of rapid industrialization and economical development. Such portrayal of the simple reality of the daily life of a blue-collar worker is the typical subject matter of Chua Mia Tee as a social realist, giving credit and recognition to the working class, in this case, the workers working in the Jurong Shipyard. Therefore, this painting holds much significance and nationalistic value.


Another example of his famous artwork : 



Chua Mia Tee ( Singapore ) - National Language Class ,1950 ,oil on canvas

LIU KANG - Life by the River

Liu Kang ( Singapore ) - Life by the River ,1975 ,oil on canvas


About the Artist : Liu Kang was a Singaporean artist famous for his Balinese-themed figurative paintings. He was a founding member of the Singapore Art Society, and was credited with developing the Nanyang style.

He was born in Fujian Province and he spent his early years in Malaysia, studied art in Shanghai and Paris, and taught art in Shanghai during the 1930s. Under the influence of Chinese artist and art teacher Liu Haisu (1896 –1994), Liu admired, and often appropriated the styles of French-based modernist painters such as Cézanne, van Gogh and Matisse. Liu Kang came to Singapore in 1942 and had been credited with numerous contributions to the local arts scene. In 1952, Liu Kang, Chen Chong Swee, Chen Wen Hsi and Cheong Soo Pieng went on their historic field trip to Bali in search of a visual expression that was Southeast Asian. Liu drew much inspiration from this trip which inspired some of his latter works. In 1970, Liu was awarded the Public Service Star by the Singapore Government. He was honoured by the same agency in 1996 with the Meritorious Service Medal. His works, spanning from 1935 to 1997, are a testament of his contributions to Singapore art.

Life by the River : Life by the River, a 1975 work, shows a village scene with busy human activity. Liu Kang is a master of composition. Depth in this painting is achieved more by the arrangement of shapes than by perspective, suggesting a pictorial sensitivity more in tune with the Chinese landscape tradition. The yellow walkway on the left and the river on the right not only echo each other, but also lead the viewer's attention to the houses in the distance.