National Gallery Singapore celebrates Georgette Chen with an extensive retrospective of the illustrious Nanyang artist

Written by Kelly Khua on 28th November 2020

Image credits: Georgette Chen. Boats and Old Shophouses, 1960. Oil on canvas, 59 x 72 cm. Collection of National Museum of Singapore. Courtesy of the National Museum of Singapore, National Heritage Board.

Native to China, Western-educated, and a Singaporean by choice, Georgette Chen was a citizen of the world whose practice spans over five decades and three continents. Throughout her peripatetic life, Chen captured the dynamism of every locale she visited through her Post-Impressionist paintings and was in constant search of a home to call her own. These subtleties and nuances of Chen’s biography are comprehensively explored in National Gallery Singapore (NGS)’s retrospective, ‘Georgette Chen: At Home in the World’.  

Curated by Lim Shujuan, Sam I-shan, and Teo Hui Min, the exhibition showcases 69 artworks and a wellspring of never-before-seen archival materials. As the first museum retrospective of  Georgette Chen since 1985, NGS brings to the fore a re-evaluation of Chen’s presence in  Singapore and her centrality to the local arts scene. 

The exhibition defies a chronological approach and it is presented in two parts, across separate rooms. When viewers step into the first gallery, they are shown vibrant paintings made by Chen in the 1960s that combine a Western pictorial idiom with scenes of the Singapore River, Malay festivities, and kampung living. Paired with archival documents that illuminate her first solo exhibition in Singapore and contributions to the Nanyang School of Fine Art (NAFA), this section allows visitors to understand the artist’s relationship with the country and its art community.

Between the two galleries lies an extensive timeline of Georgette Chen’s life that maps out her travels and experiences against significant historical events and geographies. Having lived through the Chinese revolutions of 1911 and 1949, as well as two world wars, Chen believed that her profession should be “of good-will and peace”. This sentiment is reflected in the sense of tranquillity and warmth that emanates from her still-life paintings, landscapes, and family portraits. 

The second segment of the retrospective traces Chen’s early works and travels from the 1930s  to 1940s. It starts off with a display of archival materials and photographs, which provide insight into Chen’s well-connected family and their relation to revolutionary politics. 

Chen’s observational finesse and mastery of painting techniques, products of her formal academic training in Paris, are evident in works like 'Still Life with Cut Apple and Orange'  (c.1928-1930), ‘Lotus Symphony’ (c.1962), and 'Coast of Brittany' (c.1930). These compositions demonstrate key characteristics of Chen’s practice: en plein air painting,  capturing the vagaries of her environment, and exploring the effects of shadow and light. An exception to this would be Chen’s ‘Nude Woman’ (c.1932), the museum’s newly acquired,  rare piece that reflects her training in figure drawing at Académie Colarossi.

In subsequent decades, Chen gravitated towards a muted colour palette and focused on subject matter that closely related to her Chinese identity. Duller, earthy tones dominate Chen’s portraits of her husband and landscapes of Beijing, which reflect the period’s grim atmosphere.

Image credits: Georgette Chen. Family Portrait, c..1954–1955. Oil on canvas,161.5cm  x 130.2 cm. Courtesy of National Gallery Singapore.

One of Chen’s largest paintings, 'Hakka Family' (1939), portrays maternal care and harmoniously marries themes of familial love and wartime hardship. With its limited variation in colour and tight, pyramidal composition, the painting represents the everyday activities of a  Hakka family living in compact quarters. 

The canvas emphasises strong kinship across generations, as Chen creates parallels between the mother and her eldest daughter through the act of nourishing. While the mother breastfeeds her baby, her eldest daughter tenderly spoon-feeds rice to her younger sister. On display for the first time in over twenty years, this monumental painting is a must-see as NGS offers viewers the exclusive chance to appreciate  Chen’s masterwork in person.

The retrospective succeeds in succinctly organising Chen’s oeuvre into a coherent narrative that delicately balances her biographical information and art historical significance in Singapore. It not only celebrates Chen’s artistry and cosmopolitan savvy but also shows that her international success is attributed to her family background and network of connections. These contextual details point to how Chen was a determined artist and made full use of her opportunities to make a name for herself, demystifying the notion that Chen was simply a privileged artist who stood out from other Nanyang artists because of her gender.  

Regardless of whether visitors know her as Georgette, Chendana, or Li Ying, Chen forged connections with the communities she interacted with and left her mark wherever she traversed—be it on canvas or in the art world. Through this retrospective, one gains a deeper appreciation of Chen’s engagement with art. 

More importantly, 'Georgette Chen: At Home in the World' compels visitors to meditate on how we navigate and find our place in the world as individuals shaped by various experiences,  upbringings, and cultural beliefs. Leaving the exhibition, I found myself reconsidering the idea of ‘home’, perceiving it as something multivalent, ever-changing, and unrestricted by geographical boundaries. 

'Georgette Chen: At Home in the World' is on view at National Gallery Singapore, from 27  November 2020 to 26 September 2021.