The NUS Museum in Singapore currently has a wealth of Chinese ink paintings on display created by artists from both Singapore and around the rest of the Southeastern Asian region. As a part of a partnership with a Singaporean news organization, the NUS Museum let a writer and photographer document and describe a number of these beautiful and elegant masterpieces, giving potential visitors a taste of what the exhibit has to offer. For many more examples of these timeless artworks, visit the exhibit at the NUS Museum before it moves on.
The first piece, presenting a combination of bilingual calligraphy and ink painting, is an interesting and moving modern take on an ancient art form. The piece examines a Lord Byron poem and offers a contemporary interpretation, using wild splotches of lavender and magenta ink over, around, and between the depiction of the poem itself. The ink appears to be petals or blossoms, the poem acting as words one might part these flowering branches in order to study more closely. Overall, the artwork is a celebration of both the artist’s worldwide travels and the current intersection of many different cultures in Singapore itself.
A late, well-renowned Singaporean monk and artist has a long, spare, and graceful piece on display that translates a Chinese poem and reshapes it to better suit Singapore. Created with gorgeous, sweeping characters, the artist chose to reframe the ending of the poem to reflect the rustling of banana tree leaves — a sound and image that is well known to residents in Singapore. The artist was able to adapt the artwork for a new audience.
Another piece strays from the traditional Chinese ink painting subjects of bamboo and mountains, instead focusing on a more topical theme — workers selling produce. In the painting, a woman bends over her collection of fruit, reaching into a basket as she waits to sell what she has grown and harvested. This is another way this artistic genre has reached into Singapore, depicting a working life and tropical subjects.
Another lush ink painting also embraces the tropical nature of Singapore and the Southeastern Asian region by substituting tropical fruits for traditional depictions of bamboo and other high-elevation crops. The result is a traditional-style painting that newly examines the delicious offerings of fruit groves and crops in a different Asian region.
A contemporary landscape turns the idea of the precision and simplicity of ink painting on its head, blending inks and offering up moody textures and hazes and dots of a copse of trees, or perhaps a gorge, buildings in the distance as evening falls.
One of the most special parts of art is that any artist may use an existing art form in whatever way they want. Sign up for a class today on Chinese ink painting via SGArtClass.com to see all the ways you can reshape the practice and offer commentary on your own life and experiences.
To see the pieces and read more about the exhibit, go to http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/hour-at-the-museum-44.