Lee Man Fong to be honored in Singapore

Lee Man Fong to be honored in Singapore

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Singapore

On April 9, Art Retreat Singapore will launch a solo exhibition
of Lee Man Fong, the renowned Chinese-born Indonesian painter who
started his career as a humble, self-taught artist.

Art Retreat is a private museum owned by Indonesian collector
Kwee Swie Teng, who received the Distinguished Patron of the Arts
Award from the National Art Council last September.

Marked by the launch of a book in which the art critic Agus
Dermawan highlights the significance of the artist in the Asian,
and particularly the Indonesian, context, the exhibition of 40
works is also underscored by a forum titled Rediscovering Lee Man
Fong, which is being jointly organized by the Singapore Art
Museum and Art Retreat.

It is held in conjunction with Asian Arts Week in Singapore.

Lee Man Fong is considered to be among the masters, both in
the Indonesian as well as the wider Asian context. Integrating
traditional Chinese and modern European elements, his works are
among the most sought after for their distinctive style.

In 2001, his painting titled Sate Seller brought the audience
at the Larasati auction to a standing ovation when it fetched Rp
750 million.

Sate Seller is just one of 2,000 works from his hand. He liked
to paint man in his environment, such as the farmers amid their
paddy fields, the fish seller, the barber in the shade of a tree
or people in the act of rituals and folk dances.

But he also painted roosters, horses and fish, which were a
particular theme. Fish in the Chinese cosmology is a symbol of
wealth and plenty. The word "fish" in the Chinese language has
the same pronunciation as the word "plenty", explains Agus
Dermawan.

No wonder Man Fong has produced numerous fish paintings, most
of which were commissioned works.

He was as skilled in using ink, pencil, water color, charcoal,
pastel or gouache on paper, as he was in using oil on canvas and
on hardboard. He also made graphic works with etching and wood
cut. His themes ranged from plants, flowers and landscapes to
objects, old buildings, animals and humans.

He was open to other techniques used by Western masters, as
seen from his use of chiaroscuro a la Rembrandt, but he
maintained his own specific Eastern character.

Born in Guanzhou/Canton, China, in 1913, Lee Man Fong was only
three years old when his family moved to Singapore. While his
artistic urges began at a very young age, it was only much later
that he could dedicate himself full time to painting, due to the
financial circumstances of his family.

In 1932 he moved to Jakarta where he started an advertising
agency and worked as a commercial artist. In 1936, the head of
the Dutch East Indies Association in Batavia invited him to
participate in a painting exhibition, which was in fact
exclusively a Dutch painters affair.

Not surprisingly, this caused quite a commotion in the art
world at the time. As he then dedicated himself full-time to
being a painter, he also visited Bali, where he worked briefly,
and held solo exhibitions in Jakarta and Bandung.

He eventually received a scholarship from the Dutch government
to study painting in Holland, where he also held solo exhibitions
in prestigious locations.

On his return to Indonesia, he caught the attention of then
president Sukarno and was appointed painter to the presidential
palace and chief curator of its collection in 1961. He also
compiled a five-volume edition of president Sukarno's art
collection.

It was during this time that he received Indonesian
citizenship. However, when Sukarno fell from grace Man Fong, who
was considered close to Sukarno, with his alleged communist
inclinations, found it safer to take refuge in Singapore (in
1967). In 1985 he returned to Indonesia, where he died in 1988,
from liver and lung complications.

As Art Retreat is preparing this unique exhibition, Charles L.
Gould, vice president of the Hearst Foundation and a member of
the Board of the San Francisco Fine Arts Museum, has expressed
his desire for a Man Fong exhibition in America, while the
upcoming auctions of Larasati and Sotheby in Singapore, to be
held on April 8 and April 9, will offer at least five of Lee Man
Fong's paintings.

This comprehensive show brings together some of his best-known
work, alongside others that are being shown for the first time.
Will the show also move to Indonesia? In view of his significance
to the development of Indonesian art, it would only be logical.

But no announcement has been made so far.

Lee Man Fong:
A Pioneer Southeast Asian Artist Exhibition
Opening and Book Launch, April 9
Exhibition through Sept. 25
Art Retreat
10 Ubi Crescent
Lobby C #01-45/46/47 Ubi Techpark
Singapore 408564