SingLit 101
Reading literary pioneer Arthur Yap’s enigmatic poems through his abstract art
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An old photograph of poet and painter Arthur Yap with his paintings at Tanglin Road.
PHOTO: ST FILE
- Arthur Yap's poetry and abstract paintings reject grand national narratives, focusing instead on simplicity and private expression beyond typical Singaporean themes.
- His poems often use abstraction and visual composition, mirroring his art's pared-down style and encouraging readers to interpret meaning personally.
- Yap's work challenges expectations for local artists to depict social realism, offering an alternative aesthetic valued in Singapore's literary and art scene.
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SINGAPORE – When most Singaporean writers and artists were, in the early decades of independence, running in search of a language to announce the birth of a new nation, pioneer poet Arthur Yap walked in the other direction. His poetry, written in his peculiar idiolect, disavowed big historical themes and spoke in the lower case.
Even more so his paintings, now rarely seen, which are often untitled abstracts with no signature on the recto. The latest revamp of the permanent exhibition at the National Gallery Singapore has turned up another untitled Yap from 1970 which depicts – presumably, one can only guess – a vermilion and blue oblong sun hanging over the horizon, diffusing its colours and forms across the rippling surface.
