Liu Kang’s colourful 1953 depiction of a graceful Balinese dancer was painted a year after the landmark Bali trip that helped define the nascent Nanyang school of painting.

Liu visited the Indonesian island in 1952, along with Cheong Soo Pieng, Chen Chong Swee and Chen Wen Hsi. Bali’s rich cultural heritage and beautiful landscapes fired the imaginations of these China-born artists, who had moved to Singapore to escape the upheaval of war-torn China.

Like his contemporaries, Liu was trained in China, but he also absorbed European influences. He lived in Paris from 1928 to 1933, where he was exposed to the various European schools of art, from the Renaissance to Impressionism.

Souri, likely named after the dancer, was created from a pastel study done in Bali. The sketch is also in the National Collection and, besides the main figure, contains a smaller study of the intricate headdress.

Set in the context of the developing Nanyang style, this work embodies the cosmopolitanism and regionalism that defined this pioneer Singapore art movement.

Liu the painter is evidently deeply engaged with the entire ritual represented by the dancer, who is captured mid-gesture, arms raised, posed elegantly in all her finery. One can almost hear the gamelan music and imagine the spectators watching this dance unfold in a temple courtyard.

This prototypically Balinese scene is one of many painted by Liu and his peers. While some might quibble that there is an element of exoticisation to their depictions of bare-breasted women and idyllic rural landscapes, there is no denying that these immigrant painters sought to capture the sights of their new home and its neighbours.

Liu drew not just the picture-perfect scenes, but also the difficult moments of life in South-east Asia. He witnessed atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers during World War II and documented them in a multi-volume book of illustrations. Published in 1946 after the end of World War II, Chop Suey contained images, sometimes graphic, of the horrors of the Japanese Occupation of Malaya.

He also contributed to the art scene in other ways, serving as president of the Society of Chinese Artists and becoming a founding member of the Singapore Art Society, as well as serving as its president for 11 years.

In 2003, he donated more than 1,000 paintings and sketches to the Singapore Art Museum. His Balinese art is in demand, as can be seen from a personal auction record set in July 2023 for Pounding Rice, a 1953 work which sold for $698,500 at Christie’s.

This work is on display at the National Gallery Singapore, DBS Singapore Gallery 1 until April 1, 2024.