Social Identity
• Portraiture as a reflection of the subject’s
status in society.
Social Identity
• A painting can be used to establish a
person’s status in society. A portrait can
be representative of a person’s inherent or
perceived importance as an individual.
• Students will need to explore how artists
engage a variety of elements to portray
their sitters’ personalities, characters
and/or status.
Subject Matter
• What type of a person do you think he/she is?
• Who is this person?
• What is he doing?
• Where is he / she?
• What do you see that makes you say that?
Lai Foong Moi
Labourer (Lunch Break)
1965
Oil on canvas
103.7 x 66.5cm.
Lai Foong Moi
• Lai Foong Moi was one in a handful of women artists to emerge in
the Malayan art scene in the 1950s. She moved to Singapore to
study at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 1953. A
scholarship from the French Government took her to Paris in 1955
to study at the L'Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts. She
returned to Singapore in the late 1950s and accepted a teaching
position at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts 1958, remaining on
staff until 1994.
• http://www.nus.edu.sg/cfa/museum/asia.php
Lai Foong Moi
Labourer (Lunch Break)
1965
Oil on canvas
103.7 x 66.5cm.
In this artwork, the labourer is portrayed as
sitting casually in an area that resembles a
eating-place His legs are slightly spread
and his left arm leans against the back of a
chair. He is gazing into the distance and
appears deep in thought. He is the main
subject whilst in the background, a samsui
woman is seen bent over and eating from a
tiffin carrier. These help us to figure out that
this figure is a construction labourer taking
a break during his lunch.
Lai Foong Moi
Labourer (Lunch Break)
1965
Oil on canvas
103.7 x 66.5cm.
In the background, we see bold black
outlines forming a grid-like pattern. These
could be the silhouettes of scaffolds used
or incomplete buildings at a construction
site. With the simple treatment of the
background (flat colours and lack of
shadows), we feel a sense of simplicity is.
Lai Foong Moi
Labourer (Lunch Break)
1965
Oil on canvas
103.7 x 66.5cm.
The main subject is dressed casually in a
labourer’s outfit – blue overcoat with a
white singlet and grey shorts. However, we
can see that his clothing is clean and he
has combed back his hair neatly. All these
provided him with an air of respectability.
His skin appears to be suntanned and he
looks muscular. His face, with the
determined jaw, contribute towards the
impression of an honest working man.
(a) Describe the subject matter (what you
see) of this painting.
- A seated person/man dressed in a dark
blue shirt over a singlet and shorts. Type of
clothes suggest that he could be a working
class person, a labourer, as the title
suggested. He is resting on a stool with his
left elbow propped against something. He
looks very tanned, suggesting that he could
have been working under the sun for quite a
while. The man is looking towards the left of
the painting, perhaps looking at something.
In the background, we see a samsui woman
(dressed in a blue coat and red head-dress
sits by a table with her back facing us. She
seems to be holding up a pair of chopsticks
in her right-hand suggesting that she could
be eating her lunch. On the table, we see a
tiffin carrier, a container which people used
to carry their food to work at that time.
These 2 people appear to be in a
construction site as suggested by the lines
in the background.
(b) Discuss the use of colours,
brushwork and composition.
The overall colours used for this work is
rather dark, with a strong dominance of
dark browns, greys and dark blue. The
choice of colours suggest the dust/dark
squatters which the workers had their
lunch. Paint is applied in a flat manner
for the background with the use of bold,
cross-hatched lines to suggest perhaps
scaffolds of buildings. The brushwork for
the depiction of the figure is rather
smooth, with careful blending of dark and
light colours to bring out the folds of the
clothes and the 3D form of the man’s
face. The composition is well-balanced in
a way that the man seems to divide the
composition diagonally into half, using the
lady to balance the man on the left-side
of the painting.
(c) What is the artist trying to
express about the subject
matter?
The artist is perhaps trying to create
an awareness of the working
condition and life of the labourers.
The work also brings across the
type of hardship which the labourers
have to endure. The artist is also
serving as a historian, documenting
the lifestyle and type of work the
population is engaged with at that
time in 1965. That was the time
when the government was
implementing the HDB scheme
where they engaged labourers to
work at construction sites, building
high rise HDB estates.
Read:
http://www.nationalartgallery.sg/realism/
http://goodenei.com/2009/12/05/%E8%B
5%96%E5%87%A4%E7%BE%8E%E3
%80%80lai-foong-moi/
Lai Foong Moi
The Samsui Worker
1967
Oil on canvas
90cm x 60cm
Georgette Chen
Portrait of Eugene Chen
1940
Oil on canvas
92 x 91.5cm.
Georgette Chen
• Painted familiar everyday scenes and
objects in a style strongly inspired by the
Post-Impressionists. She worked mainly
with oil and pastels
• http://www.postcolonialweb.org/singapore/
arts/painters/channel/13.html
Eugene Chen is the second husband of
Georgette Chen. He was the Foreign Minister
to the Republic of China and was a big
influence in her life. This is one of three
portraits that Georgette Chen painted of her
husband before his demise. He appears to be
gazing into the distance, deep in
thought,perhaps over the book which he has
just read. He is portrayed as a scholarly and
dignified character.
Georgette Chen
Portrait of Eugene Chen
1940
Oil on canvas
92 x 91.5cm.
Georgette Chen has chosen to depict her
husband in an intimate manner. He is dressed
modestly with a long-sleeve shirt and dark
pants; wrapped around his neck is a scarf.
Eugene is seated in a simple rattan chair and
his hand holds onto a red cover book. The
background is plain and simple, suggesting a
humble lifestyle. From the relaxed pose, we
can tell that the relationship between the artist
and the subject is very intimate, making the
viewers feel intrusive.
With such a portrayal, Eugene Chen appears to
have a disregard for material comforts but is in
search of a higher intellectual concern.
The use of colour also exemplifies his
simplicity. The background and the figure itself
is in soothing solemn colours of beige,cream,
brown and grey. The book in his hands
however is in red/scarlet. This contrasted with
the overall colour scheme, and thus draws our
attention to it.
Georgette Chen
Portrait of Eugene Chen
1940
Oil on canvas
92 x 91.5cm.
Georgette Chen
Portrait of Eugene Chen
1961
Oil on canvas
92 x 73 cm.
Georgette Chen
• Use of expressive lines =
Strong influence of Van
Gogh, especially in
Eugene Chen’s portraits.
• Composition of the
figure=Stable
pyramidal/diagonal format
of the Post-Impressionist,
Paul Cezanne
Relationships
• Portraiture as a manifestation of
relationships between people.
Relationships
• Portraiture can tell us about the
relationships between the people in the
picture. The facial expressions, poses,
arrangements and setting provide rich
information about the sitters and how they
relate to one another.
• Students learn how artists depict the
diversity and dynamics of human
relationships in their works.
Liu Kang
Artist & Model
1954
Oil on canvas
84 x 124 cm
Highlight the similarities that you
noticed in Liu Kang’s painting and
the works by the four Western
artists.
Paul Cezanne
Henri Matisse
Liu Kang
Artist & Model
1954
Paul Gauguin
Vincent Van Gogh
Singapore Pioneer Artist - Liu Kang
(1911 - 2004)
His Influences by the Post-Impressionists
Influence of the Post-Impressionists
Liu Kang
Influence of Paul Cezanne
• Aim of Paul Cezanne:
– To convey the essence and
permanence of his subject
matter by studies of forms in
nature, etc.
– Believed colour and form to be
inseparable and tried to
emphasize structure and
solidity in his work
Influence of the Post-Impressionists
Liu Kang
Influence of Paul Cezanne
– Cezanne
created
form using
his
brushstroke.
•
From Cezanne, Liu Kang Learnt:
–
Monumental, balanced composition & an
understanding of underlying structure
Liu Kang
Influence of the Post-Impressionists
Influence of Paul Gauguin
• Paul Gauguin
-
Used colours of his emotions (nonnaturalistic),
-
Works are full of symbolism, style is
simplified, heavy dark contours,
strong rhythmic composition,
retention of a flat pictorial space.
Liu Kang
Influence of the Post-Impressionists
Influence of Paul Gauguin
- Depiction of
indigenous people
and the ARTIST’S
GAZE
From Gauguin, Liu Kang Learnt:
- The retention of the 2D aspect of the pictorial surface
- Use of imagination over observed reality
Liu Kang
Influence of the Post-Impressionists
Influence of Vincent Van Gogh
•
Vincent van Gogh
-
A passion for humanity.
-
He used large areas of
intense, unmodulated
colours applied thickly in
heavy strokes with the
brush, searched for spiritual
truths through use of
familiar, elementary
symbolisms.
From Van Gogh, Liu Kang Learnt:
- Expressive power of strong colour sensations
- Vigorous brush strokes that impart strength & dynamism to a
work
Liu Kang
Influence of the Post-Impressionists
Influence of Henri Matisse
•
Henri Matisse
- Colour is the key factor,
described a painting as an
"alchemy of colour" which
created harmonies resembling
musical composition.
From Matisse, Liu Kang Learnt:
- Aesthetic & lyrical quality of rhythmic line work combined with
harmonious colours to form decorative motifs
Liu Kang
Artist & Model
1954
Oil on canvas
84 x 124 cm
Liu Kang
Artist and Model. 1954
THEME:
• shows Chen Wen Hsi
sketching a Balinese woman
• may be based on a sketch
made during the artists' field
trip to Bali
APPROACH:
• dark outlines have become
white - an innovation which
could have been inspired by
batik painting
• Chen is seated, working on
a sketching board propped
on another rattan chair =
rhythmic repetition of chairs
• Echoed by the number and
arrangement of tea pot. cups
on the round table makes
entire painting casual and
whimsical