Ma Ge (a.k.a. Koh Cheng Foo, middle) sketching in Thailand, 1963

For those keen to know more about our local art scene, this would be a great opportunity to hear from the experts.

This free Mandarin talk will be held on Sat 24th June, from 2-4pm at the Singapore Art Museum.

Lecture I: Singapore Art – A Journey from 1930s to 1960s
Kwok Kian Chow will base his lecture on the “Singapore Art” entry he has written for the forthcoming Singapore Encyclopedia , supplemented by a discussion on some of the aesthetic and art theoretical underpinnings in the Nanyang School (or “Nanyang Style”) works, particularly Chen Wen Hsi and his differentiation of neiguanpai (“painting of internal vision”) and waiguanpai (“painting of external vision”).

Speaker Bio: Kwok Kian Chow
Kwok Kian Chow is the director of Singapore Art Museum and was commissioner in Singapore’s first participation in Sao Paulo and Venice biennales. He received his art and art history training in NSCAD University and University of British Columbia, where he received his MA in art history in 1984. A frequent participant in international arts conferences and a member of judging panels for international competitions such as Taipei Print Biennale, Osaka Triennale, Philip Morris Japan Art Award and Hermes Korean Art Award, he is author of Channels and Confluences: A History of Singapore Art (1996) and many academic essays.

Lecture II: Ma Ge’s Role in Singapore Art
This presentation attempts to look at the nascent art scene from the period 1935 to 1963 through the writings and work of Ma Ge, a keen observer and commentator on art in Singapore and Malaya. Ma Ge was the pseudonym of Mr. Koh Cheng Foo, a school principal of a Chinese school and an artist in his own right. His unique and privileged position amongst pioneering and emerging artists as well as artist groups, together with his enthusiasm and ability to express and comment on the artists, their art and their practices, made him the pre-eminent commentator in local art circles of that time. His ensuing output included many regular newspaper columns, commentaries in artist catalogues and magazines, as well as 13 books on the subject of local / regional art and culture, among them the 1963 work, “A Brief History of Malayan Art”.

Speaker Bio: Dr Lai Chee Kien
Lai Chee Kien is Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore. He graduated from N.U.S. with an M Arch. by research in 1996, and received a PhD in History of Architecture & Urban Design from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2005. His research focuses on the history of art and architecture in Southeast Asia, with special interests on post-war developments in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. He is also a registered architect in Singapore.