In 1963, artist Ho Ho Ying said, “Realism has passed its golden age; Impressionism has done its duty; Fauvism and Cubism are declining. Something new must turn up to succeed the unfinished task left by our predecessors.”
The new artistic language, he might have added, was abstraction. Ho was the first Chairman of the Modern Art Society.
The groundwork for the rise of abstraction had, in fact, been laid a decade before. Some of Singapore’s early migrant artists, like Cheong Soo Pieng, Chen Wen Hsi, Lim Hak Tai and Yeh Chi Wei, were already creating semi-abstract works. Abstract art does not seek to reproduce physical reality. Instead, it relies on pure form, colour and texture to convey meaning or emotion. The proponents of abstraction were a younger generation of artists, some of whom had trained overseas in the 1960s and 1970s. They felt that realism did not reflect the essence of Singapore’s rapid modernisation and was not sufficient for artistic development.
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When: Ongoing - Where: Level 2, DBS Singapore Gallery, City Hall Wing
- General admission ticket required (free for Singaporeans and PRs)