C4 LIFE! People MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015 Painting the life of

Actress Rui En plays the having to portray a real-life person for the first time, though she says this fear late artist in docudrama was also what challenged her to take the job. and finds that they share To prepare herself, she read up as much as she could on the artist, from many personality traits biographies by art historians to Chen’s personal letters. Rebecca Tan Hui Shan At the same time, she was also grateful that there was limited video documenta- atching Rui En take her tion of the artist as this gave her the seat on stage and tuck space to “breathe life into the character”. her legs delicately by her She hopes that by portraying Chen as a W side, it feels uncannily woman, rather than just an artist, she can like looking at pioneer bring her story to a wider audience. artist Georgette Chen, whom the actress “We do not want the production to be portrays in an upcoming three-part an arty-farty docudrama made for people docudrama. who already know about her.” Beyond the sharp chin, ruler-straight Rui En also had to get used to the lack posture and pursed, red lips, there seems of dialogue. In most scenes, information to be a sophisticated, unapologetic is delivered by a narrator and the cast is dignity about the 34-year-old MediaCorp used only to dramatise a particular actress that similarly emanates from the moment or encounter. Freed from having woman in the self-portrait behind her. to memorise lines, Rui En was able to During the filming for the programme, focus on the production’s other which premieres on Wednesday on priorities, such as historical accuracy. Channel NewsAsia and MediaCorp Managing director of Channel News- , Rui En uncovered aspects of Asia Debra Soon explains that to achieve Chen that she identified with intimately. an accurate portrayal of the artist, all the At a press conference last Friday, she periods of her life spent in Paris and says of Chen: “She was feisty, strong- Shanghai were shot on location. Sixty- willed and incredibly independent. In two other sets were created in Singapore these ways, I felt like a mirror of her.” and each prop, right down to Chen’s She adds with a laugh that “both of us paintbrush, was selected carefully. also do not smile very much” – alluding Naturally, these efforts required an to the recent media backlash against her extensive amount of research, which led supposedly sulky demeanour at the Star to valuable new discoveries. For example, Awards. a fifth self-portrait by Chen, which had Born in 1906 in Zhejiang, China, Chen been given to an old neighbour of hers, is best known for her still life paintings was uncovered during the making of the and portraits and contributed tre- docudrama, along with the unpublished mendously to the growth of the Nanyang memoirs of Chen’s sister. art movement in Singapore, which fused Curatorial and collections director at South-east Asian themes with Western the National Gallery, Mr Low Sze Wee, painting techniques. says that new painting may well be the The docudrama, The Worlds Of earliest known self-portrait of Chen, Georgette Chen, commissioned by the preceding the four that had been dis- National Gallery Singapore and produced Portraying pioneer artist Georgette Chen in The Worlds Of Georgette Chen marks the first time Rui En is playing a real-life covered before. by Channel NewsAsia, recreates the person. PHOTO: NATIONAL GALLERY SINGAPORE The journey has also been personally colourful life of the artist, who had a enlightening for Rui En. privileged, cosmopolitan upbringing as and texture influenced by French Impres- was her capacity for love that Rui En school in Braddell Road. She was tasked “As you grow older, you want to learn the daughter of a rich businessman. more about the world around you. This sionists of the late 19th century. admires most. to play the piano while channelling the It takes viewers from her childhood in project came at a point when I was just France to her youth in revolutionary She was one of the few female Chinese The actress explains: “Even though grief that Chen had for her husband who starting to become interested in other China and, finally, her adulthood in Singa- artists featured in the famous Salon her husband, Eugene Chen, was a politi- had just died, shortly after the end of the forms of art beyond acting. From it, I pore, where she taught at the Nanyang d’Automne exhibitions in Paris. In 1982, cal fugitive and more than twice her age, Sino-Japanese war in 1944. have begun to cultivate real appreciation Academy of Fine Arts. She died in 1993 she was awarded Singapore’s Cultural he was the love of her life. For me, what While Chen may have been “a woman of other mediums,” she says. after a long illness. Medallion. Her works will be on display makes her human is that she dared to love after my own heart” to Rui En, portraying [email protected] She was highly regarded for her post- at the National Gallery when it opens in unconventionally.” her did not come without difficulty. Impressionistic work, with her heavy October. One of the most memorable scenes, Prior to the project, she knew little The Worlds Of Georgette Chen premieres on brushstrokes and emphasis on volume Yet, for all her professional success, it she recounts, was filmed in an abandoned about the artist. She was terrified at Wednesday on Channel NewsAsia at 8pm.

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