SOCIETY

Different strokes

Guangdong-born artist Wen Hsi pioneered a new kind of East-meets-West art when he moved to . An exhibition at his former home showcases his legacy

BY HONG XINYI

UKIT TIMAH IS a swish among Asian collectors, with Chen’s Singapore neighbourhood oil on canvas painting Pasar fetching DON’T LOOK AT THE Bwhere an inordinate number a record HK$13.24 million (US$1.7 of roads are named after the kings, million) at a Sotheby’s Hong Kong GIBBONS FIRST. queens, duchesses and dukes of the auction in 2013. former British Empire. A blue plaque From the early 1960s until LOOK AT THE on a bungalow at 5 Kingsmead Road, his death in 1991, Chen lived at however, commemorates a different 5 Kingsmead Road. For decades, BRANCHES kind of history. he taught art at The Chinese High Johnny Quek, who has more than 600 of Chen’s Chinese ink paintings The plaque is bestowed by School, which was nearby, and also Singapore’s National Heritage Board, held lessons in this house; in the and although the round blue sign garden, he kept a menagerie of is discreet, its presence denotes animals, to better capture their a singular honour: this house is the essence in his paintings. redesigned, stacks of Chen’s only private residence in the country Evidence of his experiments in paintings were discovered in the attic. designated a historic site. It’s because abstractionism can be seen in the These were handed over to his family. it previously belonged to pioneering form of two murals on the front porch, Tay also made sure the murals were Singaporean artist Chen Wen Hsi. created in 1960. The house sat empty carefully restored. Born in in 1906, Chen for several years after his death, and The house has changed hands arrived in Singapore in 1947. He is a by the time artist Tay Joo Mee bought once again, and she will be moving key figure in the Nanyang movement: the property in 1998, the murals out later this year. New owner Audrey a group of emigrant artists who fused were overgrown with algae. Koh Karmen, a psychotherapist, traditional Chinese art training with Tay had met Chen years ago, bought the property for S$15 million Western styles and techniques such and bought some of his paintings. (US$11.1 million) and plans not only as Post-Impressionism and . Her appreciation of his work inspired to preserve Chen’s murals, but also The work of these artists today the preservation of aspects of his to incorporate them into the design of attracts keen and growing interest legacy. Before the house was her new house so that the murals will

22 THIS WEEK IN ASIA MARCH 31 - APRIL 6, 2019 SOCIETY

ARTIST TAY JOO MEE; JOHNNY QUEK AND HIS FRIEND JENNIFER LEWIS; AND A SELECTION OF WORKS BY CHEN WEN HSI, INCLUDING ‘GIBBONS’. Images: Hong Xinyi and Johnny Quek

be more visible from the main road. the aesthetics of traditional Chinese to buy a Chen painting because of one a curious flowering of hybrid “I feel a responsibility to keep these ink painting is clear: the branches are single, beautiful stroke. sensibilities. In Hong Kong, for murals for the next generation,” impressionistic if compared to the “Look at his speed of running the instance, the artists of the New Ink she says. verisimilitude of Western realism stroke,” he says. “It’s very difficult Movement began to marry traditional Before that happens, members but their textures and details are still to create a good, powerful stroke.” Chinese forms to post-war Western of the public will have a chance to view deftly articulated. “Then come over Chen’s interest in fusing East art movements to striking effect. a range Chen’s work in his former here and look at this,” Quek says, and West stirred long before he came If one considers the likes of the abode. From April 12-May 3, this will striding over to a 1982 gibbon to Singapore. As a student first at the Nanyang and New Ink artists critical be the site of Homecoming: Chen painting, where the branches are Shanghai Art Academy and then the precursors to contemporary Chinese Wen Hsi Exhibition @ Kingsmead, depicted more as single strokes: Xinhua Academy of Fine Arts, he artists such as Liu Dan, who toy with which will showcase more than 30 the search for a new purity of form. chose a track that allowed him to and transcend the conventions of of his Chinese ink paintings. “He is progressing, but he doesn’t study both Chinese and Western art. traditional forms, a richer picture of Most of these are from the private know where he will go yet.” It was difficult, though, to find books Chinese modern and contemporary collection of Johnny Quek, a former In a piece painted later still, about Western art in then, art emerges. civil servant and 25-year director of in 1987, just a few years before he once told an interviewer. In 5 Indeed, Quek hopes to open the Merlin Gallery. Quek befriended Chen passed away, the brushwork Kingsmead Road, he amassed a large a museum in China where he can Chen in 1978 and has amassed more for the branches had grown sure collection of these books, and some display his Chen collection, exposing than 600 of his Chinese ink paintings. and vigorous. “This was the peak,” will be on display in the exhibition. a wider Chinese audience to his work. His admiration for Chen’s unique Quek says. “This style is very The artistic explorations of Chen He explains, simply: “I believe he is sensibilities is infectious. different, very complex, and very and his emigrant peers in Singapore a very important figure in Chinese For example, Chen is famous for difficult, but it was successfully done. parallel those of other diaspora art history.” ■ his paintings of gibbons – one of which Here, he’s even given up depicting the communities in the years between is depicted on Singapore’s $50 dollar details of the gibbons’ fur and faces. the establishment of the People’s Homecoming: Chen Wen Hsi bill – but standing before one of these But the branches are more important Republic of China in 1949 and the Exhibition @ Kingsmead runs from works, Quek insists: “Don’t look at the than the gibbons.” opening up of the country in the late April 12 to May 3 at 5 Kingsmead gibbons first. Look at the branches.” A keen calligrapher himself, Quek 1970s. Access to new ideas from Road, noon to 7.30pm daily. This 1972 painting’s adherence to says he has sometimes been moved outside the mainland unleashed Admission is free

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST THIS WEEK IN ASIA 23