Bibliography:The late Singapore born Lim Mu Hue was trained in western painting at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Along with his contemporaries, Lim taught at the Academy and was influenced by the Woodcut Movement in China. As a member of the six artists’ team who exhibited during the landmark ‘Woodcuts’ exhibition in 1966, he has helped contribute tremendously to the popularity of Woodcut prints in Singapore. His prints often reflect socio-political themes depicting daily life of ordinary Chinese and portraying the beautiful atmosphere of their local villages. Working with a variety of mediums from oils, ink to woodcuts and charcoal, his works are strongly grounded in the Singaporean lifestyle and Chinese symbolism reflecting his Chinese identity. In 2006-07, Lim was commissioned by the Land Transport Authority of Singapore to create a work that will be integrated into the new Circle-line’s Esplanade station’s façade as part of the Art-in Transit programme.
Bibliography:One of the seminal figures of modern Singapore art, Liu Kang, along with his contemporaries Chen Wen His, Cheong Soo Pieng, Georgette Chen and Chen Chong Swee, are regarded as pioneer artists whose practices shaped the pictorial language of the Nanyang School. Born in Fujian, China, Liu Kang's formative years were spent in Malaya. He returned to China to train at the Xinhua Arts Academy in Shanghai before departing for Paris in 1928 to immerse himself in the Parisian art scene where he was much influenced by Post-Impressionism. He taught at Xinhua Arts Academy for a few years before returning to Malaya in 1937, and eventually settled in Singapore after World War II, In Singapore, Liu Kang's artistic activities extended beyond art making to teaching and writing, where he demonstrated to be a keen observer and articulate commentator on art, culture and society.
Liu worked largely in oil and pastel. In 1950s, Liu Kang pushed the earlier stylistic values of Post-Impressionism to advance naive and decorative qualities and gave precedence to bright hues, flat surfaces and bold outlines in his treatment of local themes. These qualities mark an individualistic style that is Liu's alone among his contemporaries. As with the rest of the Nanyang artists, Liu Kang was interested in local subject matters. This extended to the traditional customs and arts of the migrant Indian community in Singapore's multi-racial society.
