‘Street artist’ and life figure drawing pioneer Sim Tong Khern dies at 95

SINGAPORE – Artist-educator Sim Tong Khern, one of Singapore’s first “street artists” and a core member of early life drawing group, Group 90, has died aged 95.

His funeral was held at Mandai Crematorium on May 26. He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

Sim, born in Singapore in 1930, is best known for his large-scale public paintings of streets next to the Singapore River. He was among the first Singapore artists to work en plein air, befriending pioneer watercolourists Ong Kim Seng and Lim Cheng Hoe over regular weekend outings.

Ong, 79, said Sim was a “low-key” artist who was reticent even during their meetings in the 1980s and early 1990s.

“He is someone we would call a ‘Mr Nice Guy’, always smiling and making a positive remark about your work and progress. I was young and words like that motivated me to work harder.”

A Colombo Plan scholar in 1957, Sim was also among the first Singapore artists to further his art studies in Australia, where he formed a lifelong friendship with

pioneer artist Solamalay Namasivayam.

The duo were at the centre of Group 90 – founded on the cusp of 1990 at Lasalle College of the Arts – dedicated to the drawing of nude figures from life models when it was still considered taboo in conservative Singapore.

Other participants of the weekly gathering included Lasalle founder Joseph McNally and artists Chia Wai Hon, Liu Kang and Ng Eng Teng – all of whom have since died.

Yeo Workshop, which has an ongoing retrospective of Namasivayam, said in a tribute: “We mourn the passing of Mr Sim Tong Khern – one of the last torchbearers of Group 90, a gifted artist, compassionate educator and a living bridge to a critical chapter in Singapore’s art history.

“Mr Sim was instrumental in shaping the ethos of Group 90. He helped create a space for artistic seriousness, form and freedom at a time when such practices were barely understood.”

Sim’s relative obscurity when compared with his contemporaries is in part due to his dedication to teaching. He rarely made public appearances except during the occasional art exhibition opening.

He lectured on art for three decades at institutions including the Teachers’ Training College, the Institute of Education, Hwa Chong Junior College and Jurong Secondary School. He was also an adjunct staff member in the department of architecture at the University of Singapore in the 1970s and 1980s, teaching basic design to first-year students.

Artist Jeremy Hiah, one of his students at Lasalle College of the Arts in 1994, remembers Sim for his open-mindedness.

“He was a very liberal lecturer, and allowed us to do anything. He allowed our creativity to be explosive. There was no right or wrong, as long as we understood ourselves. He told us that his heart was on the right side, and not the left.”

As dean of the faculty of fine arts at Lasalle from 1994 to 2011, artist Milenko Prvacki kept the school’s studios open for Group 90.

He said: “Sim was a deeply thoughtful and dedicated teacher and artist. His legacy lives on in all Singaporean artists who have ever attended a life drawing class, or drawn the human figure in their art work.”