The Big Picture: Visual Arts Donations at the National Library
Librarian Georgina Wong explores the print material and ephemera related to the works of prominent artists who have donated or loaned their collections to the National Library.
A visit to an art exhibition or gallery would typically mean viewing finished artworks that have been created by an artist. Captions that accompany these artworks would sometimes help to explain the context and the artist’s inspiration.
At the National Library, we are interested in the whole process, that is, the print material and ephemera related to the artist. While we do have a sizeable local artwork collection at the library, we focus on print material related to an artist’s career. I am particularly fascinated by artists’ personal collections, usually built up from scratch by the artists themselves. These primary sources could include exhibition catalogues and brochures, gallery invites, sketchbooks, diaries, notes and photographs of their creative process and travels. They provide invaluable insight into artists’ careers and artistic journeys.
The library’s collection of these materials relies on donations from artists and their families. We do our best to ensure that they are accessible for research, and build a representative collection of local artist’s work for future generations.
Working together with the National Arts Council, the Singapore Online Arts Repository (SOAR) is one of the ways we proactively collect on local arts. We are in the second year of collecting and digitising material from artists and arts groups in Singapore.
Here are four artists, all of whom were contemporaries in Singapore’s art scene, and each of whom received Cultural Medallion awards as pivotal artists of their respective mediums. They or their families have generously loaned and/or donated their personal collections to us as a part of the SOAR project. Join me on a tour of their collection highlights.
Thomas Yeo
Thomas Yeo (b. 22 April 1936, Singapore–) is a Singaporean artist from the second-generation of the Nanyang style of art. His love for art began while he was a student in Tao Nan Primary School, where he would spend Wednesday mornings in art class and his spare time in the library looking up the works of famous artists for inspiration. He eventually studied art full time first at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore, and then in London where he would go on to teach experimental art after graduation.
Yeo’s artwork is abstract and multi-layered. Paint is his primary medium, although he has also incorporated paper, metal, and synthetic materials into his pieces. Landscapes feature prominently in his artwork, with Singaporean poet Edwin Thumboo even penning a poem titled “Yeo’s Landscapes” in admiration of his work.
“For you, dear Thomas, colour
And shapes are lyrical, discreet.
Nature’s shifting calculi of skies
Accosting hills, echoes along
Attentive valleys, up interlacing
Slopes, enriching the nuance
Of a waterfall before it reaches
Silence in a pool.”
“Yeo’s Landscapes”, Edwin Thumboo, The Best of Edwin Thumboo (Singapore: Epigram Books, 2012). Also published in Continuation: An Exhibition of Paintings and Collages (Singapore: Thomas Yeo, 1988).
Beyond his own artistic practice, Yeo has also worked to promote and nurture the arts scene in Singapore. He has published six coffee-table books on Singaporean artists, as well as chaired and judged various arts awards and sponsorships such as the Shell Discover Arts Awards and the Philip Morris ASEAN Arts award.
Recently, Yeo has generously donated some of his materials to the library for preservation and digitisation. These donations include posters, exhibition brochures, booklets, and photographs of himself and other painters abroad, which provide a valuable record of his extensive and prolific career.
Many of Yeo’s landscapes feature imagery gleaned from his extensive travels throughout Europe and Asia. Among his donation are photographs of Yeo alongside fellow Singaporean artists, Cheong Soo Ping and Lee See Sin in France and Italy in the early 1960s.
These photographs below were taken from 1960 to 1964, around the time he was studying at Chelsea School of Art (now the Chelsea College of Art and Design) and the Hammersmith College of Art and Building).
Yellow Rider, 1967, Acrylic, Canvas; Accession Number: 2020–0035. Collection of the National Gallery of Singapore
Lim Tze Peng
Lim Tze Peng (林子平) (b. 28 September 1921, Singapore–) is a well-known second-generation Nanyang Artist and a fellow Cultural Medallion Recipient. Although self-taught, Lim went on to exhibit his works both locally and internationally, becoming a collector’s favourite. In 2012, his painting “Singapore River Scene” set a record at Christie’s auction for the highest selling price by a living Singaporean artist at that time.
Lim is best known for his paintings depicting iconic Singapore scenes, heritage buildings, and landmarks, as well as kampungs, which he painted during a time of rapid urban development in areas such as Chinatown and the neighbourhoods along the Singapore River in the 1980s. In recent years, Lim has reinvented, expanded and explored the bounds of Chinese calligraphy, which he calls 糊涂字 (hu tu zi), or muddled calligraphy.
Lim has generously loaned a large collection of his personal photographs to the library, which is currently undergoing digitisation for future access. These serve as an important document of his life and work.
Lim frequently travelled across Asia on painting trips (often with the Ten Men Group), photographing and sketching scenes, people, and other cultures as inspiration for his art. Lim frequently travelled across Asia on painting trips (often with the Ten Men Group), photographing and sketching scenes, people, and other cultures as inspiration for his art. He was part of a 25-person group that travelled to India, Nepal, Burma and Thailand for a month. The trip was organised by Singapore Art Society, Society of Chinese Artists, the Malay Art Society and the Southeast Art Association.
With a busy life as a full-time educator and principal as well as the father of four children, Lim would take weekends and school holidays to go out and paint — one of his main interests being street scenes in Singapore, trying his best to capture a Singapore whose urban landscape was rapidly developing and changing.
Lim Tze Peng
Ink and colour pigments on paper
2003–03163
Mr & Mrs Koh Seow Chuan Collection, National Gallery Singapore
Apart from his well-known street scenes and landscapes, Lim boasts a large body of calligraphic works stemming from when he was a student at Chung Cheng High School.
Much of his work, even non-calligraphic works like street scenes, makes use of Chinese ink strokes and calligraphic lines to evoke movement and life.
c.2000–2002
Chinese ink on paper
2003–03068
Mr & Mrs Koh Seow Chuan Collection, National Gallery Singapore
Chng Seok Tin
Chng Seok Tin’s (Singapore, 1946–2019) passion for art began during her studies at Chung Ching High School. However, after graduation, financial difficulties meant that she had to take up teaching instead of pursuing her passions. Eventually, after a decade of teaching, she studied at Nanyang Fine Arts Academy and pursued further studies and practice in the UK, France, and the U.S., where she honed her skills and developed expertise in a diverse range of mediums.
Printmaking, drawing, painting, collage, mixed media, textiles, photography, ceramics, sculpture, and installation are all mediums that Chng has excelled in. Her deep love and empathy for human and societal issues, as well as her inspiration from the natural world, are evident in her works. She explores the human condition and the inherent tension between people and their environment in her art.
In a tragic turn of events, Chng lost 90% of her eyesight in 1988 after a surgical operation to remove a brain abscess. Despite this, she returned to her practice after a year, leaning more into sculpture and mixed media. One of her notable mixed media works, Wonders of Golden Needles, incorporated natural materials such as dried lily buds, known as kim chiam or “golden needles” in Hokkien)
Chng is remembered for her significant contributions to the art world particularly in the field of printmaking. She was president of the Printmaking Society (Singapore), and in 2005, she received the Cultural Medallion for her pivotal role in Singapore’s art scene. That same year, she made history as the first Singaporean to hold a solo exhibition at the United Nations Headquarters in Brussels.
Chng is also an established and prolific writer who used various pen names such as Zhuang Xin (庄歆) and Xin Zhen (心珍) under which she published award-winning Chinese essays, articles, short stories and travel writings.
The Library is fortunate to receive Chng’s drafts and sketchbooks which offer rarely seen insights into her process and inner creative world.
“Self Portrait” was created during the darkest moment of Chng’s life, when an accident in 1988 left her almost totally blind. After a year of solitude Chng returned to her art.
Chng Seok Tin, 1989
Drypoint and monotype
Image size: 60 x 40 cm Frame size: H102.6 x W76.8 x D2.3 cm
Accession No: GI-0216
Collection of National Gallery Singapore
Chng Seok Tin
Mixed Media (golden lily, gold paint, string and varnish)
Accession No: 2011–00887
Collection of National Gallery Singapore
Teo Bee Yen
Teo Bee Yen (born 1950 in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China–) is an acclaimed photographer and philatelist, as well as a Cultural Medallion recipient. Despite only beginning his photography journey in the mid-1990s, he was soon ranked as one of the top 10 photographers in the world by the Photographic Society of America (PSA) by 1998.
Teo’s family moved to Malaysia when he was three years old, where his father worked as a rubber seller, before finally relocating to Singapore. Starting as an avid stamp collector in his youth, Teo eventually became a prolific philatelist, with numerous award-winning stamp collections and published books on philately. He later became interested in other art forms, including photography, which he picked up in the 1990s, drawing inspiration from Chinese paintings and landscapes. Despite being self-taught, he quickly rose to international prominence.
Most of Teo’s photography was taken overseas, with him making numerous trips to various provinces in China, as well as Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam. He is best known for his photography of minority groups living in particularly harsh environments, such as the Yi people in Sichuan China, trading communities living around Tonle Sap in Cambodia, and the sea-faring Bajau people off the coast of Sabah. His works capture these communities going about their daily lives in a joyful and dignified manner.
Teo’s landscape photography is heavily inspired by Chinese landscape paintings, as evidenced by his series on Huang Shan (水墨黄山). He described the series as his favourite work in an oral history interview with the National Archives. This series was most recently exhibited in Beijing in 2010.
2008–07555–001
Collection of National Museum of Singapore
Gift of Singapore Post
In an oral history interview with the National Archives,¹ Teo said of digital photography that it was overall a good innovation, as it allowed people to take photos more freely and spontaneously as they were free to delete unwanted photos afterwards without worrying about using up film. This was also during a time where quality film developing was getting harder to find in Singapore and Teo did not have the skills he needed to develop them in the way he wanted to.
Personally, I think it’s beautiful how many of these incredible artists sought art and creation at every stage of their lives. The way they pursued their artistic expression despite of or because of their circumstances and their generosity in sharing their craft and contributing as much as possible is truly inspirational.
While most of these materials we are collecting and digitising will not be available for public viewing for a while, look forward to being able to access these at the library for your research or even just for your personal viewing pleasure soon!
Georgina Wong is a Librarian with the Arts & General Reference team at the National Library, Singapore. Her focus revolves primarily around the visual and performing arts.
[1] Teo Bee Yen, oral history interview, 30 August 2010, MP3 audio, National Archives of Singapore (accession number 003522), reel 4 of 5.
