Art societies formed by Chinese in Singapore

As was customary in the early days of the Chinese community in Singapore, where immigrants arriving from China formed associations or societies based on familial and trade connections, those in the art sector also banded together to set up groups to promote their interests and practice.

Early days

The earliest example goes as far back as the first two decades of the 20^th century when some Straits-born Chinese formed a hobby group known as the Amateur Drawing Association in 1909. It received strong support from eminent community leaders such as Lim Boon Keng (1869–1957), Song Ong Siang (1871–1941), Tan Jiak Kim (1859–1917), and Tan Boo Liat (c. 1874–1934).

When Yang Zhi’ai (birth and death years unknown), a China artist who stopped by and then settled in Singapore when returning from his studies in France, found the art scene here too quiet, he established an art association called Tanmei huahui (“Explore beauty painting society”) in 1929 to organise art exhibitions. Otherwise, visual arts activities of the time would likely be left to organisations such as Nanyang Chinese Students’ Society, which were dedicated to more general cultural interests including literature and theatre.

The 1930s: Influx of Chinese immigrants

The 1930s saw an increase in the number of art groups being formed. More and more artists were arriving from China, especially towards the second half of the period due to the imminent Second Sino-Japanese war. For example, the Nanyang Journalistic Caricature Association was formed in 1931, and was dedicated to the promotion of cartoons which were becoming increasingly popular as the main medium to spread anti-Japanese messages among the Chinese population in Singapore.

In 1935, the Salon Art Association was established by the alumni of the Xinhua Academy of Fine Arts and Shanghai Art Academy, whose membership was later extended to include artists from Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. This resulted in the formation of the bigger and more inclusive Society of Chinese Artists (SOCA) in the following year, which received a big boost with members of the intelligentsia arriving in Singapore to escape the war breaking out in China in 1937. SOCA played a significant role in the establishment of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in 1938.

As artists in Singapore came increasingly under China’s influence during the Second Sino-Japanese war, they turned to the art of woodcutting and cartooning as they joined the anti-Japanese war movement on the island. The SOCA organised a Save-China Cartoon Exhibition to raise funds for China’s war efforts. Many in the arts then were urging artists to make full use of cartooning as a powerful weapon in propaganda against the Japanese, especially among the illiterate in the community. Within the five years leading up to the war, there were a good number of cartoon exhibitions to raise funds in aid of war victims.

In 1940, NAFA also started a “woodcut and cartoon research programme”, which involved Lu Heng (1902–1961), Chen Chong Swee (1910–1985), Tchang Ju Chi (1904–1942), Dai Yinlang (1907–1985), Xu Junlian (1911–unknown), Chen Puzhi (1911–1950), Chuang U-Chow (unknown–1944), Liang Zuokan (birth and death years unknown) and Yong Mun Sen (1896–1962), all of whom actively exhibited their works.

As part of the anti-Japanese war effort, the SOCA and the Singapore Art Club also joined forces to organise the Fight for Freedom Art Exhibition in 1941 to raise funds for British war victims. This was the first time Chinese and expatriate artists in Singapore worked together towards a common cause, transcending the interests of their respective groups.

Post-war: Singapore Art Society, Equator Art Society

Following the disruption of art activities during Japanese occupation (1942–1945), the art scene in Singapore and Malaya underwent rapid changes after the war. Most art associations were not revived post-war except for the SOCA, which changed its Chinese name from Huaren meishu yanjiuhui to Zhonghua meishu yanjiuhui. In 1949, British officers Richard Walker (1896–unknown), Carl Alexander Gibson-Hill (1911–1963) and Francis Thomas (1912–1977), together with local artists such as Liu Kang (1911–2004) and Suri bin Mohyani (birth and death years unknown), established the Singapore Art Society (SAS) as a multicultural body. It amalgamated various ethnic-based arts groups such as SOCA, Malay Society of Arts, Indian Fine Arts Society as well as NAFA and the British Council. The overarching SAS clearly set out to promote Malayan arts and culture as a new consciousness now that the war was over. Those who had served as its president included Carl Alexander Gibson-Hill, Liu Kang, Ho Kok Hoe (1922–2015), Christopher Hooi (birth and death years unknown), Ho Ho Ying (1936–2022) and Khor Ean Ghee.

In 1956, Lee Boon Wang (1934–2016) led a group of young artists such as Lim Yew Kuan (1928–2021), Lai Kui Fang (1936–2022), Chua Mia Tee and Koeh Sia Yong to establish the Equator Art Society (EAS), advocating a realist approach to art to depict the reality of life and express noble thoughts and feelings through images. These artists had previously been active in the Singapore Chinese High Schools’ Graduates of 1953 Arts Association, formed earlier with a stronger anti-colonial stance. With a few hundred members at its height, the society was championing realism in art and opposed to modernist style of painting. It also cautioned members that only by knowing the value and worth of true art would one be bold enough to forge ahead against “the temptation of personal aggrandisement in all its devilish forms” and that what is great about true art is that “it does not lose its integrity amidst the ugly commercial dealings belonging to the decadent bourgeois”.¹Though EAS was deregistered in 1972, the group left behind an enduring influence and legacy in the Singapore art scene.

The 1960s: Modern Art Society, Singapore Watercolour Society, Ten Men Group

In the early 1960s, a group of young artists whose artistic position was diametrically opposed to that of the Equator Art Society met frequently to discuss what direction art in Singapore should take. Ho Ho Ying, Wee Beng Chong, Tong Siang Eng, Tay Chee Toh, Tan Yee Hong (1932–2003), Goh Tuck Hai and Ng Yat Chuan formed the Modern Art Society (MAS) to challenge and encourage artists to reinterpret nature with a new vision. In a newspaper article in 1964, Ho Ho Ying lamented the lack of aesthetic direction in the art scene driven by associations such as SAS and SOCA. Earlier in 1963, Ho had written that “Realism has passed its golden age; Impressionism has done its duty; Fauvism and Cubism are declining. Something new must turn up to succeed the unfinished task left by our predecessors. Any attempt to recover past glory shall be in vain because history will not repeat… Art like all things in the world is ever changing and we are trying to catch up with the change.”

In 1969, watercolorists including Chen Chong Swee, Gog Sing Hooi (1933–1994), Ong Kim Seng, Lim Cheng Hoe (1912–1979), Sim Kwang Teck (1906–1993), Loy Chye Chuan, Khor Ean Ghee and more founded the Singapore Watercolour Society. The members would go on painting trips in the city area along the Singapore River on Sundays, and occasionally travelled around the region in search of pictorial subjects.

Between 1961 and 1970, Yeh Chi Wei (1913–1981) gathered a group of friends to go on field trips in the region to sketch and paint so that they would be able to exhibit their works on their return. Known as the Ten Men Group, which was not a formal association, members included regular participants such as Lee Sik Khoon, Seah Kim Joo, Yeo Tiong Wah (birth and death years unknown), Chen Cheng Mei (Tan Seah Boey, 1927–2020), Cheah Phee Chye, Choo Keng Kwang (1931–2019), Lim Tze Peng, Lai Foong Moi (1931–1994), Shui Tit Sing (1914–1997), Tan Choh Tee and Tan Teo Kwang. Together they have travelled to Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia.

Other groups which have remained active today will be described in a separate article, because most of them may be categorised by the medium of Chinese ink on which their practice is based.