BIBLIOASIA JUL - SEP 2019 VOL. 15 ISSUE 02 FEATURE

Georgette Chen: Artist Extraordinaire Sara Siew examines the link between visual art and the written word through the fascinating story of Singaporean artist Georgette Chen.

(Above) Georgette Chen (seated rightmost in the first row) at the Horace Mann School, New York, 1923. (1927–33). Her time in the French capital Beginnings and Endings Chen studied in private schools around the world. was perhaps the most significant. The Artists express themselves in a variety of their experiences, thoughts and feelings Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent She received her primary education at the Lycée City of Light was not unfamiliar to Chen; “A good love story is always close ways. Although art is the most obvious through the written and spoken word. van Gogh, for example, wrote 800 or Jules-Ferry in Paris, followed by Horace Mann School having spent part of her childhood there, to one’s heart.”5 of these, some artists also rely on the Some writings, like manifestos and so letters to his younger brother Theo, in New York, the exclusive McTyeire School for Girls in Shanghai, and the Art Students League in New York, she spoke fluent French and was well medium of words as a means of self- declarations, tell us about the ideas laying bare his private anguish and joys, before studying art in Paris. Image reproduced from acquainted with the sights and sounds of Paris augured exciting beginnings for aexpression. From private musings and behind a certain style or about the con- and in the process painted a portrait of Chia, J. (1997). Georgette Chen. Singapore: Singapore Paris. Chen counted the Tuileries Garden Chen not just in art, but also in her per- working notes to published essays and text in which artists worked, while others himself that is arguably as compelling as Art Museum. (Call no.: RSING q759.95957 CHI). and Parc Monceau among her favourite sonal life: it was here where she found interviews, many artists have chronicled strike a deeper, more emotive chord. The his artworks. (Above right) Georgette Chen and her first husband, childhood haunts and, decades later, a love that was to become her most The celebrated Singaporean artist Eugene Chen, whom she married in 1930. Date would still delightfully recall riding on the enduring. In 1927, at the age of 21, she Georgette Chen (1906–93) also wrote of photo unknown. Courtesy of National Gallery Georgette Chen said that France was in a way her home. She knew Brittany, in the northwest of France, best merry-go-round at the park and feeding met Eugene Chen in Paris. The two were extensively. Chen’s achievements as an Singapore. besides Paris, having spent many years of her childhood in St Enogat, a village near the beachside suburb her favourite swans at the Tuileries. introduced by their mutual friend Soong artist are widely recognised: her lively of Dinard. Georgette Chen. Coast of Brittany. c. 1930. Oil on canvas, 54 x 65 cm. Gift of Lee Foundation. Revisiting Paris in her early 20s, now Ching Ling, more famously known as Collection of National Gallery Singapore. Courtesy of National Heritage Board. oil paintings of the places and people of Growing up, Chen experienced a cos- as a budding artist, further strengthened Madam Sun Yat Sen (Chen’s father was Singapore at a formative time in its history mopolitan and privileged upbringing in Chen’s relationship with the city. While a key funder of Sun Yat Sen’s political have cemented her status as one of the Paris, New York and Shanghai. enrolled at the less structured art schools activities in China). nation’s most important first-generation Chen’s father had encouraged her of the Académie Biloul and Académie Eugene, a political journalist and artists; she was also a respected art interest in art since young, even engaging Colarossi, Chen also carved for herself respected diplomat, had been Sun’s educator for 27 years and a Cultural a private art tutor, Victor Podgorsky, for an education that extended far beyond foreign policy adviser from 1922 to 1924 Medallion recipient. Less well known, her. Father and daughter, in fact, attended the classroom. She travelled around Paris and, following that, the minister for foreign however, is her personal story, one that these lessons together. Chen’s affinity for frequently, seeking subjects to paint affairs of the nationalist government in spans wars and revolutions, triumph and oil as a medium was apparent even then. and relishing “the freedom of painting Wuhan, China. With the collapse of the tragedy, and loves lost and found. She recalled of her childhood: “My whatever you like”.4 nationalist government in 1927, Eugene A Life Less Ordinary father expected me to study Chinese Chen gradually found acclaim, begin- found himself exiled in Europe, his politi- painting, but I had a different idea. I told ning with the acceptance of one of her cal career in limbo. His encounter with “I often sit quietly in the silence him I wanted to study the oil medium, paintings by the Salon d’Automne in 1930, Georgette Chen was, however, to bloom. of the night and wonder at the which would enable me to paint every- an annual exhibition that had by then Despite their vastly different pro- mysterious drama that is life…”1 thing around me, people, food, flowers, transcended its beginnings as an alter- fessions, the two were aligned in their salted ducks, sampans, peasants and native to the official conservative salon mutual love for the arts. Chen recalled: Georgette Chen, who was named Zhang potatoes.”2 On another occasion, she to become an influential, progressive “Well, in the first place he always loved Liying when she was born in October remembered her father “impatiently platform in the Parisian art world. She art, music, literature, French. He was a very 1906, was the fourth daughter of Zhang enumerat[ing] the long list of Chinese also started to exhibit regularly in other good French scholar as well. And he was Jingjiang, a wealthy Chinese merchant. vegetables which could be painted. He salons and participated in two major always ready to pose for me. That always wanted to know why I insisted on painting exhibitions in 1937: Palace of Painting helps an artist. He always told me not to the foreign potato.”3 and Sculpture as part of the Paris World sew because there were many tailors Sara Siew is a writer and editor at the National Gallery Singapore. She is interested in the relation- Chen’s foundation in oil painting Fair, and Les Femmes Artistes d’Europe who could do the work. And if I wanted ship between various forms of art, particularly the was further developed when she studied Exposent (Women Artists in Europe) at to sew, then it was better to take up my intersections of the visual and the literary. art in New York (1926–27) and then Paris the Jeu de Paume museum. easel and paint instead.”6 10 11 BIBLIOASIA JUL - SEP 2019 VOL. 15 ISSUE 02 FEATURE

painting or study was successful, or if it she was 55 years old and living alone in Paradise on Earth had to be executed again. These details, Singapore. Much had transpired in the 17 which Chen recorded dispassionately and years since her husband’s death, bringing “So you can see why I am fast faithfully, offer precious insights into the her serendipitously to a Southeast Asian becoming a tropical plant and often hidden and banal aspects of artistic island that was worlds away from the desire nothing more than to spend practice, as well as the hard work and cities she had known: Paris, Shanghai the rest of life painting the vivid dedication behind an artist’s craft. and New York. motifs of this multi-racial paradise Over time, Chen’s writings also bear Following the end of World War II, of perpetual sunshine.”16 silent witness to the progression of her Chen stayed in China until 1947, when career: while early diary entries speak she left for New York. That same year, The simple, satisfied existence in Malaya of these attempts and studies, later she married Dr Ho Yung Chi, Eugene that Chen often spoke of was due to her accounts (which appeared in letters to Chen’s colleague and an old mutual art, which flourished in this land she now family and friends instead) describe the friend of theirs. Together, Chen and Ho called home. From the 1950s to the 70s, pieces she was commissioned to create, lived in New York then Paris, all the while she firmly established herself artistically, her attempts at juggling painting and bearing hopes of eventually returning to creating many of the pain­tings she is teaching, and the tedium of preparing China. However, in the absence of better known for today. This would, arguably, not for exhibitions or judging on committees. prospects in China, the couple eventu- have been possible if she had not settled Chen’s blissful life in Paris as a happy ally decided to take up an offer to teach down in Malaya: so closely intertwined was newlywed and an emerging artist was at Han Chiang High School in Penang, her art with its people and places. soon compromised by the outbreak of Malaya, arriving in 1951 to what Chen Chen, in turn, would increasingly the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. described as “a beautiful tropical island identify herself as being a part of this In 1941, while she and Eugene were living which I call my Tahiti”.12 land, a new citizen who set out to learn in Hong Kong, they were detained by the While Chen was immediately the mother tongue Malay, print her own Japanese and placed under house arrest enthralled by this new land and enjoyed batik and adopt the Malay nom de plume before being moved to Shanghai, where her life in Penang immensely, the experi- of Chendana (which refers to fragrant they were interned until 1944. ence was marred by growing strife in her sandalwood), becoming, in a sense, the During their time in the Chinese marriage. Her relationship with Ho was metaphorical tropical plant she often city, Eugene was often called up for increasingly plagued by bitter arguments wrote about in her letters. Her art and “interviews” with the Japanese; fearing over issues like money (she suspected Ho life were an indivisible whole that was Georgette Chen, c. 1950s. Courtesy of National Gallery Singapore. for Chen’s safety, he always insisted on to have an ulterior motive) and her con- inextricably linked to the land she had taking her everywhere he went.9 Chen tinued use of Eugene’s surname. Chen’s settled into. would later recount an exchange between eventual decision to part with Ho was Chen’s enchantment with Malaya Despite their 30-year age differ- Eugene and a Japanese officer at one of further complicated by intransigence on was, in fact, already apparent when she ence, and the initial disapproval of these sessions, following yet another his part, and it was only after a lengthy, first arrived in Penang in 1951 with Ho. Chen’s father at their pairing, the couple failure on the part of the Japanese to draining process that the couple were In a letter written a few months after found in each other “the closest of secure her husband’s cooperation: eventually divorced in 1953, after six her arrival, she had gushed about her companions”,7 and were married in Paris years of marriage. In the same year, Chen new home: in 1930. Chen would take on Eugene’s “Another arrogant Japanese left our moved to Singapore. surname and retain it even when she sitting room humble and human Chen arrived in Singapore with “I have always had a sort of remarried after his death. again. These were his parting renewed hope for a peaceful life. In a weakness for this little island while The revelatory nature of the written words: ‘Other Chinese leaders letter to friends in early 1954, she said: passing through it on my many word – even of life at its most mundane – is have several faces and several “With my regained liberty, I now look journeys westward and hoped that exemplified in Chen’s writings. The simple, tongues, but you, Mr Chen, have forward to a simple, useful, and creative some day, I may have more than just sequestered joys that she shared with only one face and one tongue…’ existence for the remaining short years a glance at it. It is called the ‘pearl Eugene in Paris were rarely mentioned And in his characteristic humour, that are left.”13 She rented a house in of the East’ or ‘Paradise on Earth’ publicly; rather, they were expressed in Eugene replied: ‘That is precisely Sennett Estate and took up part-time not without reason. If Malaya does diaries where she recorded the minutiae why I must not be made to lose teaching at the Nanyang Academy of not prove to be a fruitful period for of everyday life with her husband – from that one and only face and tongue, Fine Arts, a move that would allow her me artistically, it shall not be for the (Top) Georgette Chen painting Tunku Abdul Rahman in Kuala Lumpur, June 1956. Also pictured is the Tunku’s giving him a haircut to talking a walk having no spares’.”10 to pursue her art independently while lack of beauty which seems to be wife, Sharifah Rodziah. The Tunku first met Georgette and Eugene Chen in 1931 on a ship from Marseilles, Paris, to Singapore. He noted that Chen had a “beautiful and charming” presence, and attributed his political together to search for pineapples and supporting herself financially. everywhere… The waterfront with awakening to her husband. Courtesy of National Gallery Singapore. avocados for a still-life painting. In one Eugene Chen passed away in 1944 She frequently described this the rows of Malayan straw huts candid entry, she wrote: “Begin small at the age of 66 due to ill health. He was arrangement in her letters as allowing bathing right in the water whose (Above) Georgette Chen. Singapore Waterfront. c. 1963. Oil on canvas, 50 x 61 cm. Gift of Lee Foundation. Collection of National Gallery Singapore. Courtesy of National Heritage Board. canvas of E portrait. Poses so badly & still under house arrest in Shanghai at her to have “bread without butter”, and color is green and violet, make me talks all the time.”8 the time. with characteristic good humour, often shout with excitement each time Chen recorded not just details of her added, “I don’t like butter much anyway, I pass them by… As to the great The inspirations and attractions that These are accompanied by depictions daily life but also, significantly, informa- Peace in a New Land too fattening!”14 Despite the toll of age variety of fruits, with their strange, Malaya afforded clearly invigorated Chen. of daily scenes: from a bustling outdoor tion on her art and the subjects she was and debilitating rheumatoid arthritis (a new, and unexpected forms, they She made no secret of the “inexhaustible market to a satay seller working by the studying or portraying, with descriptions “We have all found peace of mind condition that began in her 40s), Chen are not only wonderful to look at motifs”18 that she found in this “seasonless beach, to the Singapore River. Chen’s such as “roses still-life 10F” and “nature in a land which is not our own…”11 adopted a simpler lifestyle – one far but delicious to eat! I have been newfoundland”,19 which she embraced portraits, which she was frequently morte 6F”, terms that likely refer to stan- removed from the material comforts of introduced to the Durian fruit and wholeheartedly. Tropical fruits in their commissioned to make, form another dard French canvas sizes. On occasion, When Chen wrote these words in a letter yesteryear – with bravado, relishing even consider that my life has been bright colours and variegated forms take compelling body of work; whether they she would also briefly mention if her to Dorothy Lee, Eugene’s cousin, in 1961, “the ordinary chores of life”.15 enriched by it!”17 centre stage in her still life paintings. portray her family and friends (including 12 13 BIBLIOASIA JUL - SEP 2019 VOL. 15 ISSUE 02 FEATURE

the first prime minister of Malaysia, in 1967, Chen, then 61, offered what peaceful. Here, I have stood on disposal. I have tried to pursue the wonder is that my profession Tunku Abdul Rahman) or strangers, could be described as a summary of my own two feet, albeit arthritic, my work to the best of my ability, should have been one of good-will SPEAKING OF… these depictions are warm and intimate, her remarkable life: and I have cut a happy coat with I have continued to be myself and peace! Only God can answer sometimes capturing their subjects in his colorful tropical cloth at my seeking neither fame nor riches. for these paradoxes…”23 Georgette Chen is the first artist fea- the middle of private, interior moments. “I shall be glad to leave my pictures Art like love and friendship or tured in The Artist Speaks, a series of Chen often professed, in letters to to Singapore and Malaysia as religion is a pursuit of love and In 1981, Chen suffered a serious books published by the National Gal- friends, of her desire to spend the rest of my little contribution to this devotion. I have respected and fall. She was hospitalised and required lery Singapore featuring visual artists her life depicting Malaya and its motifs. tropical land in which I have cherished my friends and have hospice care for the next 12 years until who write. This desire was, however, stymied by found rehabilitation. This last tried hard not to take advantage her passing in March 1993 at age 87. The Artist Speaks: Georgette Chen age and debilitating illness. She battled chapter of mine on this ‘treasure of them and their love has kept me Following Chen’s death, 53 of her pain­ draws upon the National Gallery’s rheumatoid arthritis from her 40s until island’ which I call my ‘Tahiti’ alive. Sometimes when I think that tings as well as a voluminous archive of extensive archive of materials on the death. The condition, which had also (Tahiti, as you know, is another I am the product of four world her personal papers and belongings were artist dating from the 1930s to the afflicted her father, caused much pain and tropical island where the French events, all wars – two Chinese bequeathed to Singapore. Georgette 1970s. The collection consists of Chen’s lack of mobility (in one account, a severe painter Gauguin adopted as his revolutions, the one of Dr Sun Chen’s love for and gratitude to this journals, photographs, official records, attack in her knees left her “hobbling new home) has been creative and and Mao Tse-tung and the 1st and land – “this tropical land in which I have newspaper clippings, personal belon­ on a stick for months and months”20), second World Wars in all of which found rehabilitation” – had finally come gings – including her beloved Hermes which, although controlled by medica- I have been inexorably involved, full circle.24 Baby typewriter and Malay books, (Right) Georgette Chen. Self-Portrait. c. 1946. Oil tion, worsened over the years. This was on canvas, 22.5 x 17.5 cm. Gift of Lee Foundation. among others – as well as carbon copies in part and, quite ironically, due to the 13 Chen, G. (1954, March 9). Georgette Chen to “friends” of some 1,000 letters that Chen had Collection of National Gallery Singapore. Courtesy NOTES medicine that Chen was taking religiously, of National Heritage Board. [Letter]. Retrieved from National Gallery Singapore. written to friends and family between 1 Chen, G. (1974, April 12). Georgette Chen to 14 Chen, G. (1961, February 6). Georgette Chen to Dorothy and Lucille Lee [Letter]. Retrieved from a side effect of which was osteoporosis. East Coast Vendor. unidentifiable recipients [Letter]. Retrieved from 1949 and 1972. (Below) Georgette Chen. 1961. Oil National Gallery Singapore. Dorothy Lee was the Despite having to deal with the on canvas, 92 x 73 cm. Collection of National Gallery National Gallery Singapore. The book also draws from mate­ cousin of Eugene Chen, Georgette’s first husband, 15 Chen, G. (1960, December 24). Georgette Chen to painful condition alone, Chen remained Courtesy of National Heritage Board. rials held in the collections of the Singapore. and Lucille was Dorothy’s daughter. Georgette Pauline Chen and her family [Letter]. Retrieved strong and gentle in spirit; it is in this often addressed Dorothy as her cousin, keeping from National Gallery Singapore. Pauline Chen was National Library and National Archives, regard, perhaps, that her writing is most in touch with her for many years after Eugene one of Chen’s close friends. They first met shortly including the oral history interview Chen’s passing; she once told her stepmother that after Chen arrived in Penang in 1951. Pauline stood instructive, for it reveals her character in a Dorothy was “just like a sister” to her. by Chen throughout her divorce and subsequent that art historian Constance Sheares 25 way that her paintings arguably could not. 2 Chen, G. (1953, September 7.) Chen’s personal relocation to Singapore, maintaining a decades- conducted with Chen in 1988. Other In letters to friends, Chen often spoke transcript of her interview with Radio Malaya. long correspondence with her. resources in the National Library Retrieved from National Gallery Singapore. 16 Chen, G. (1961, February 15). Georgette Chen to about how “life is anguish and blessings 3 Huang, L. (1959, August 30). I meet the remarkable Dr and Mrs Kan [Letter]. Retrieved from National include a video on Chen produced all intermingled which we must accept Mrs Chen. The Straits Times, p. 6. Retrieved from Gallery Singapore. by the Singapore Art Museum for and carry on as best we can”.21 True to this NewspaperSG. 17 Chen, G. (1951, July 4). Georgette Chen to the National Library Board in 2008;26 4 Sheares, C. (Interviewer). (1988, November 2). unidentifiable recipients [Letter]. Retrieved from proclamation, she seemed to accept her Oral history interview with Georgette Liying Chen National Gallery Singapore. a biographical account of Chen’s life adversities stoically, however big or small, [Transcript of recording no. 000956/6/1, p. 9]. 18 Chen, G. (1960, January 6). Georgette Chen to Joe authored by Jane Chia in 1997;27 and and forge ahead. The measure of Chen’s Retrieved from National Archives of Singapore [Letter]. Retrieved from National Gallery Singapore. the catalogue accompanying the 1985 website. 19 Chen, G. (1968, February 29). Georgette Chen to Inez inner strength further comes through in 5 Chen, G. (1959, October 27). Georgette Chen to Hsu [Letter]. Retrieved from National Gallery Singapore. retrospective exhibition of more than the self-deprecating humour evident in Mingmeo [Letter]. Retrieved from National Gallery 20 Chen, G. (1961, February 15). Georgette Chen to 170 of Chen’s works at the National Singapore. Hsu was a friend of Eugene Chen’s and her writing. In a letter to Patricia Ken- Dr and Mrs Kan [Letter]. Retrieved from National Museum Art Gallery.28 a medical doctor who modernised medicine in Gallery Singapore. nison, one of her students who later China. He was also the author of Dr Wu Lien Teh: 21 Chen, G. (1969, February 24). Georgette Chen to became a close friend, she compared The Plague Fighter. In the letter, Georgette was Dorothy Lee [Letter]. Retrieved from National wishing Hsu success with a book he was writing, herself to an old, worn machine: Gallery Singapore. possibly a novel titled Five Years in Love. 22 Chen, G. (1963, February 11). Georgette Chen to 6 Sheares, C. (Interviewer). (1988, November 2). Oral Patricia Kennison [Letter]. Retrieved from National “My ‘full form’ can partly be history interview with Chen, Georgette Liying [Transcript Gallery Singapore. Kennison was one of Chen’s of recording no. 000956/6/2, p. 9]. Retrieved from students at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. explained by the fact that friends National Archives of Singapore website. 23 Chen, G. (1967, May 17). Georgette Chen to always revive me, for there 7 Chen, G. (n.d.). Recollections of Eugene Chen by his Dorothy Lee [Letter]. Retrieved from National are times when I do feel quite widow, notes for Dr Wu Lien-Teh’s book. Retrieved Gallery Singapore. from National Gallery Singapore. 24 Chen, G. (1967, May 17). Georgette Chen to PATRAQUE, to use an apt French 8 Chen, G. (1953, March 25). Diary of 1953 [Diary]. Dorothy Lee [Letter]. Retrieved from National word. (patraque: both a’s are short. Retrieved from National Gallery Singapore. Gallery Singapore. Said of a machine that functions 9 The word “interviews” came from Georgette. See 25 Sheares, C. (1988, November 2–1988, December Chen, G. (1961, February 15). Georgette Chen to 1). Oral history interview with Chen, Georgette badly because it is badly made or Mr and Mrs Kan [Letter]. Retrieved from National Liying [Accession no.: 000956, 6 reels]. Retrieved old.) But on the whole the slow Gallery Singapore. from National Archives of Singapore website. Georgette Chen to coach has gone fairly well after its 10 Chen, G. (1961, February 15). 26 Cheong, K., & Wang, Z. (2008). Georgette Chen, Mr and Mrs Kan [Letter]. Retrieved from National Cultural Medallion recipient 1982 visual arts last major repair though the rounds Gallery Singapore. [Videorecording]. Singapore: Singapore Art The Artist Speaks: Georgette Chen is the first 22 11 Chen, G. (1961, January 2). Georgette Chen to have not been reduced.” Museum for National Library Board. (Call no.: title in the eponymous series published by Dorothy Lee [Letter]. Retrieved from National RSING 759.95959 GEO) National Gallery Singapore. The book is available Gallery Singapore. 27 Chia, J, (1997). Georgette Chen. Singapore: As Chen alluded to in her letter, it 12 Chen, G. (1966, March 20). Georgette Chen to Inez Singapore Art Museum. (Call no.: RSING for reference at the Lee Kong Chian Reference was the simple joy of friendship – in addi- [Letter]. Retrieved from National Gallery Singapore. q759.95957 CHI) Library and for loan at selected public libraries Inez was a relative of Eugene Chen’s whom Georgette tion to art and a home she loved – that 28 Georgette Chen retrospective, 1985. (1985). (Call nos.: RSING 741.595957 ART and SING referred to as cousin, and whom she kept in touch Singapore: National Museum. (Call no.: RSING 741.595957 ART). Other artists in the series helped sustain her through adversity. with for many years even after Eugene’s death. 759.95957 CHE) include Chua Ek Kay, one of Singapore’s most esteemed Chinese ink practitioners, and the The Last Chapter late performance artist Lee Wen. In an introspective moment while writing to Eugene’s cousin Dorothy Lee 14 15