Painting Class

This painting by Lim Yew Kuan provides an intimate view of a corner of an art studio where four students can be seen. Easels, painting boards and a plaster model, which hang on the wall, suggest that this is an academic environment for training students in the fine arts. The students appear to be in deep concentration, their backs facing each other, focusing only on the canvas in front of them. Paint brushes of all sizes spill out from an open bag on the floor, and the student in the foreground grasps a few brushes in one hand while painting with the other. Lim Yew Kuan’s own art training began as a child under the tutelage of his father, Lim Hak Tai, an art educator who founded the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore, also known by its initials: NAFA. Lim was a student at NAFA in the 1950s, and was later a lecturer there before eventually becoming the second principal in 1963. As a promising young artist then, Lim’s painting gives us insight into the training of artists, something he was familiar with and passionate about.