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