Georgette Chen

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Georgette Chen
张荔英
Singaporean
EducationAcadémie Colarossi;
Académie Biloul;
Art Students League of New York
Known forOil painting
MovementNanyang Style
Impressionism
Post-Impressionism
Fauvism
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1930; died 1944)​
Awards1982:
Hanyu Pinyin
Zhāng Lìyīng
Georgette Chen, Self Portrait, c. 1946, Oil on canvas, Collection of National Gallery Singapore

Georgette Liying Chendana Chen (simplified Chinese: 张荔英; traditional Chinese: 張荔英; pinyin: Zhāng Lìyīng; Born Chang Li Ying; 23 October 1906 – 15 March 1993), most commonly known as Georgette Chen, was a Singaporean painter and one of the pioneers of modern Singaporean art as well as the Nanyang style of art in the region.[1]

A key figure in the development of modern art in Singapore, Chen is known for her oil paintings and contributions to art education as a teacher at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) from 1954 to 1981.[1][2][3] Prior to being based in Malaya and Singapore from the 1950s onwards, Chen often travelled between cities such as Shanghai, Paris, New York and Tokyo.[3] In 1982, Chen was awarded the Cultural Medallion for her contributions to the visual arts in Singapore.[3]

On 15 March 1993, Chen died of complications from rheumatoid arthritis after an 11-year struggle with the ailment.[3]

Early life and education

In 1906, Chen was born the fourth of 12 children—10 girls and 2 boys—in Chekiang (

Mandarin at home, while her father often brought the family along on his regular trips to China to support Sun's revolution, and to ensure that his children would not forget their own cultural identity.[4]

Impressionist French period (1920s–1930s)

Born into a privileged life, Chen was exposed to art at a young age. For most of her time in Paris she would either be painting at home, visiting museums, or roaming around the city every day. Chen attended high school in the US, and studied art at the Art Students League of New York for a year in 1926. She felt that Parisian life suited her better, and in 1927 she returned home to study at the Académie Colarossi and Académie Biloul in Paris. Though her parents provided financial support for her art education, they never fully accepted her decision to become a full-time artist, believing that artists would struggle to succeed financially in their careers.[4]

Career

Post-Impressionist and Fauvist China–Hong Kong Period (1930s–40s)

Portrait of Chang Li Ying (Georgette Chen) from The Young Companion, 1931

In 1930, two of Chen's works were selected for inclusion in the Salon d'Automne exhibition in Paris.[5] The same year, at 24-years old, she married Eugene Chen Youren, relocating from Paris to Shanghai as his wife in 1931.[3] Eugene was a Chinese diplomat who had served as the foreign minister of Sun Yat-sen's Kuomintang (southern government) in the 1920s.[3] He was a lover of music and the arts, supportive of Chen's work towards becoming a professional artist.[6] She would be Eugene's second wife after the death of his first wife, Agatha Alphosin Ganteaume. In 1937 when the Sino-Japanese War broke out, the couple moved to Hong Kong, where Eugene was involved in anti-Japanese activities.[3] In 1944, the couple would be arrested by the Japanese in a Hong Kong hotel.[3] Shortly after in May 1944, Eugene succumbed to illness and died in Shanghai towards the end of World War II, widowing a 38-year old Chen.[5]

In 1947, after several years of travelling across Asia while living in Shanghai, she married Ho Yung Chi, a close friend and former aide of Eugene.[3] She then moved to New York City, where Ho worked as a journalist.[3] In 1949, the artist held a major solo exhibition at the Asia Institute in New York, presenting paintings of China's landscapes and portraits that she created after the war. That same year, the couple moved to Paris, where Chen participated in the Salon d'Automne in Paris for the last time.[7][3]

Nanyang style in Malaya and Singapore (1950s onwards)

Georgette Chen, Sweet Rambutans, 1965, Oil on canvas
Georgette Chen, Tropical Fruits, 1969, Oil on canvas

In 1951, with Chen longing to return to Asia, the couple relocated to Penang, Malaya.[3] Chen would work there as an art teacher at Han Chiang High School, making many trips to Singapore during this period to visit several of her artist friends based there.[3] In 1953, Chen mounted a solo exhibition at the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. During her time in Singapore for the exhibition, she would meet the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) president Lim Hak Tai, who invited Chen to teach at the academy, though she would not take up the offer then.[3] Chen would divorce Ho in 1953, after which she would move to Singapore and spend the most artistically significant years of her life there.[3]

Georgette Chen, Fruits of Singapore, 1975, Oil on canvas

From 1954 to 1980, Chen would contribute significantly to

National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia a year later in 1986, which was attended by Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first prime minister of Malaysia.[3]

Throughout the decades, Chen's subjects had regularly been drawn from her various countries of residence—emigrating to Southeast Asia allowed her to continue her practice of depicting local subjects through her Western art style.[3] By interweaving Asian themes with her Western art training, Chen would come to be historicised as one of the pioneers of the Nanyang style together with Liu Kang, Chen Chong Swee, Chen Wen Hsi and Cheong Soo Pieng, a rare woman artist in a then male-dominated art community.[3]

Death and legacy

Chen died of complications from rheumatoid arthritis on March 15, 1993, at Mount Alvernia Hospital after an 11-year struggle with the ailment.[3]

Lee Seng Gee, Chairman of the

National Arts Council. A collection of Chen's paintings were stowed away in two rooms of her home, and subsequently discovered by Lee.[9] In June 1994, Lee donated the 53 newly discovered paintings to the Singapore Art Museum (SAM). This brought a total of 104 paintings by Chen to be found in the museum collection.[10] Apart from donations from the sale proceeds of her house, sales from Chen's personal investments of stocks and shares were also used to fund a new building for the Singapore Council of Women's Organisations (SCWO), as well as for community welfare projects for the local Malay community, and to the Practice Theatre Ensemble (founded by Kuo Pao Kun) to support Chinese theatrical art in Singapore.[11]

Chen is historicised as a significant figure in the development of modern art in Singapore, widely recognised for her achievements as an artist and contributions as an educator.[2] Posthumous retrospectives of her work continue to be staged, such as the 1997 Georgette Chen, a paintings and drawings exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum.[12] More recently from 27 November 2020 to 26 September 2021, Georgette Chen: At Home in the World was held at the National Gallery Singapore.[2]

On 1 November 2021, Google honoured Chen with a doodle on its homepage.[13]

In popular culture

In 2007, playwright

Eisner-nominated comic artist Sonny Liew's graphic novel, Warm Nights Deathless Days: The Life of Georgette Chen.[14] Commissioned by the National Gallery Singapore, Channel NewsAsia produced a three-part docudrama, The Worlds of Georgette Chen, starring actress Rui En as Chen. The English-language series that was also adapted into Chinese, aired on Channel NewsAsia, MediaCorp Channel 5 and MediaCorp Channel 8 in April 2015.[15]

On 1 November 2021, Chen would be celebrated in a Singapore and Malaysia-specific Google Doodle coinciding with the 91st anniversary of her first exhibition at the Salon d’Automne in Paris.[16]

Solo exhibitions

  • Pioneer Artists of Singapore - Georgette Chen Retrospective 1985 – held at National Museum Art Gallery from 10 to 24 November 1985.[17]
  • Georgette Chen, a retrospective exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum in 4 April–15 June 1997.[12]
  • Georgette Chen: At Home in the World – held at National Gallery Singapore from 27 November 2020 to 26 September 2021.[2]

Publications

  • National Museum Art Gallery (1985), Pioneer Artists of Singapore: Georgette Chen Retrospective 1985, Singapore

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9789810074883
    .
  2. ^ a b c d "Georgette Chen: At Home in the World". National Gallery of Singapore. November 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w "Georgette Chen Liying". Esplanade Offstage. 12 October 2016. Archived from the original on 2 May 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  4. ^ a b Sheares, Constance (17 February 1989). Khong, Roger (ed.). Georgette Chen (transcript). Vol. (Reel 1). Singapore: National Archives. Archived from the original on 20 June 2018. Retrieved 24 January 2009.
  5. ^ a b Juniper, Foo (20 March 1996). "Bouquets for two pioneer artists". Singapore: Straits Times Life!. p. 18.
  6. ^ Sheares, Constance (17 February 1989). Khong, Roger (ed.). Georgette Chen (transcript). Vol. (Reel 2). Singapore: National Archives. Retrieved 24 January 2009.
  7. ^ "Georgette Chen: An Inimitable Pioneer of the Nanyang Style". ocula.com. 25 November 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  8. ^ "Georgette Chen". reference.nlb.gov.sg. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  9. ^ "S$2.8M from sale of artist's house may be used for scholarships for art students". Singapore: Straits Times. 14 June 1994. p. 21.
  10. ^ Kan, Geraldine (14 June 1994). "Georgette Chen works donated to art museum". Singapore: Straits Times. p. 21.
  11. ^ "Other beneficiaries". Singapore: Straits Times. 19 June 1994. p. 21.
  12. ^
    ISBN 978-981-11-8479-6
    .
  13. ^ "Celebrating Georgette Chen". www.google.com.
  14. ^ Martin, Mayo (20 June 2014). "Georgette Chen to get a graphic novel". MediaCorp. TODAY. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
  15. ^ Martin, Mayo (20 June 2014). "Rui En meets Georgette Chen". MediaCorp. TODAY. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
  16. ^ "Celebrating Georgette Chen". Google Doodles Archive. 1 November 2021. Archived from the original on 1 November 2021. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  17. ^ "Pioneer artist of Singapore : Georgette Chen retrospective 1985 presented by the Ministry of Community Development and the National Museum on 9 November 1985, Singapore, National Museum Gallery 10 to 24 Nov 1985 / produced by Ministry of Community Development". Retrieved 11 December 2020.

External links

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