I went down to the Singapore Art Museum to peruse Wu Guanzhong’s painting collection, a donation that makes SAM the biggest owner of  Wu Guanzhong’s work.

To be honest, the first couple of galleries left me feeling a little cold. There were accurate oil landscapes, dabblings in Impressionism, a circle of women that looked very Matisse, a nude that looked very Egon Schiele, and everything else to complete a course in Western art history. I’m fully aware that this brief collection does little justice to his range of oils, and looking here and here I found much heartier paintings. I’m not here to bash his foray into Western art. But while his Western paintings said nothing to me from their framed canvases, I stepped into a third gallery and heard these houses sing.

They warble, they make little pops with round mouths. With the Chinese brush Wu Guanzhong comes out clear as having his own voice as an artist. His Chinese paintings are happy, fresh, alive and jumping off the wall. And with the brush he also creates his own brand of expressionism, sticking to poppy fuschia, turquoise and black. Is it an insult if I look at his abstract ink paintings and desire deeply to turn them into skirts? Because they are that fresh and desirable.

Nobody’s to say an artist should stick to one style. But if all he had were houses that sing, I would be a fan anyway.

Note: The Wu Guanzhong Donation exhibition ends on August 16, so you have two more weeks to catch it before it ends!