Low Sze Wee – författare

Published to accompany National Gallery Singapore's inaugural exhibition Siapa Namu Kamu?, this catalogue presents a survey of Singapore art from the 19th century to the present, charting major themes across broad time periods. Over 400 works of art in a wide range of media are brought together to trace the ebb and flow of the history of Singapore art. Curatorial essays provide insight into the exhibition that considers the parameters of time and nation in relation to the history of art in Singapore.

What is modernism in Southeast Asia? What is modern art, as embodied in the paintings of Southeast Asia? These questions and more are answered in Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond, published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name. Featuring 217 works by 51 Southeast Asian and European artists, from the Centre Pompidou and National Gallery Singapore as well as other Southeast Asian collections in the region and beyond, this catalogue tells the compelling story of modernism as it developed across continents, and reveals artists’ powerful, and sometimes surprising, responses to modernity.

Chen Chong Swee is acknowledged as one of the earliest artists to have explored depicting Southeast Asian scenes within the medium of traditional Chinese ink painting. Published on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition at National Gallery Singapore, this catalogue bears witness to Chen's explorations across the mediums of ink and oil, the influence his immediate surroundings had on his art, and his insistence, above all, that it was impossible to divorce art from life. Full-colour image plates, newly commissioned essays and a biographical timeline of the artist within the catalogue flesh out the inflections of Chen's oeuvre.

Significant achievement in art notwithstanding, Chen Chong Swee was also a prolific, vivid essayist. His writings- collated here and translated into English for the first time- range from the value of art education to the responsibilities of the art community, and are imbued with ardour and vigorous clarity. This compilation provides a compelling contribution to our understanding of the artist as a man of unwavering focus, whose thoughts cleaved to the advancement of art.