National Gallery Singapore stages first major show on ink master Fan Chang Tien

SINGAPORE – A new exhibition at the National Gallery Singapore hopes to reintroduce an ink master to Singapore audiences.

Fan Chang Tien: Rhythm Of The Southern Brush, which opens on Oct 16 and is on until Jan 31, brings together more than 80 works and archival materials.

The show is the latest in the museum’s series of ink exhibitions and centres on the work of an artist-educator who has taught some of Singapore’s most celebrated ink artists such as Henri Chen Kezhan and Chua Ek Kay.

Curator Lim Shujuan said at an Oct 12 media preview that Fan’s decades of teaching after settling in Singapore are central to why the gallery staged the show. “His legacy is the transmission of knowledge and the foundations of ink practice.”

Guangdong-born Fan’s migrant journey is typical of the China-born pioneer artists such as Cheong Soo Pieng and Georgette Chen. He was trained in the Shanghai School (haipai) of ink painting, known for its bold, expressive brushwork, in the 1920s.

In 1947, the Chinese government sent him to Bangkok to raise funds for rebuilding a teaching college destroyed in the civil war. As the war escalated, he was stranded in Bangkok and spent nearly nine years there, before settling in Singapore in 1956 where he lived until the end of his life.

Most of the works in the exhibition date from the late 1950s to the 1980s, tracing Fan’s move from Bangkok to Singapore and the evolution of his practice in Singapore.

A quarter of the works are from the National Collection while the rest are private loans.

The show is divided into five sections. The first covers his training in Shanghai under Zhu Wenyun and Wang Geyi, both disciples of the haipai master Wu Changshuo. The second is dedicated to Fan’s best-known subject, bamboo, while the third deals with his observations of nature and life in Singapore. The fourth section focuses on his shanshui (landscape) paintings before the fifth concludes with his legacy as a teacher.

Curatorial assistant Chee Jin Ming noted that Fan’s treatment of bamboo and stone motifs reflects his changing practice over the years.

“Bamboo represents integrity, moral righteousness. Stone represents rootedness and stability. The treatment of the rocks in his earlier bamboo works is more descriptive, but from the 1970s to the 1980s, the stones start to look more bare and simple, which really aligns with the idea of simplicity in the literati style.

“Across his later works, the rocks beside the bamboo become barer, and the leaves more expressive.”

The highlight of the third section are works from 1964, including Kampong Scene With Cyclist, one of only two known works by him depicting kampung scenery. His works from this period moved away from traditional bold brushstrokes in favour of looser strokes and more varied tones of ink, leaning towards abstraction.

He also signed some works from 1964 and 1965 as “guest in Singapore”. Lim said the gallery does not know why, since in 1960, Fan had already received approval for long-term residence in Singapore. He was granted Singapore citizenship in 1976.

“It could reflect an unease with his practice, in deciding to try something new,” Lim said. “It's noteworthy that he certainly had the skills to move towards a more abstract style, but he decided to return to traditional ink conventions.”

A number of works are observations of everyday Singaporean life. In The Gathering Of Poets (1971), a traditional literati scene is set in modern Singapore, with figures drinking coffee and reading newspapers.

Poetry and seal carving, two of the traditional Chinese scholar-artist’s “four perfections” alongside painting and calligraphy, are included in the show.

Lim said Fan was one of very few artists who mastered all four skills.

In a poem accompanying Scholar Admiring The Landscape (1954), Fan spoke of “the rugged paths of this troubled world” where “each step is hard to take”, which Lim interpreted as a scholar’s wish to retreat from worldly affairs into painting.

The inscription on Watching The Waterfall (1956) describes a cascade that “roars in the mountain forests regardless of season”.

Fan’s seals, many of which appear on his paintings, are displayed in a recreated scholar’s room. One seal reads “beauty is found in simplicity”.

At his day job, Fan taught at Chung Cheng High School and later Whampoa Secondary School, where his students included Nai Swee Leng and Tan Oe Pang. The latter also studied at Fan’s Pure Orchid Studio.

In a video interview at the exhibition, Tan recalls Fan encouraged students to paint subjects others had not.

The dedicated artist continued painting even near the end of his life. Bird Under The Banana Leaf, which shows familiar local subjects in loose brushstrokes, was painted in hospital in 1987, at least a month before his death at the age of 80.

Lim added that one of his seal carvings sums up how he wished to be remembered: “a life measured in brushes”.

Of this carving, Lim said: “This is how he wants himself to be remembered – through his work, through his practice, and through his students, all of which he remained dedicated to until the end of his life.”

Book it/Fan Chang Tien: Rhythm Of The Southern Brush

Where: Wu Guanzhong Gallery, Level 4 City Hall Wing, National Gallery Singapore, 1 St Andrew’s Road
When: Until Jan 31, 10am to 7pm
Admission: Free for Singapore citizens and permanent residents; $20 for other visitors
Info: str.sg/mmJf

Correction note: In an earlier version of the story, we said that the exhibition consisted of three parts instead of five parts. This has been corrected. We are sorry for the error.