Liu kang: essays on art and culture is a testament to the inexorable passion of an artist who knew no boundaries. This collection of 80 essays, which liu kang wrote over 44 years, offers an insight into the artist's myriad interests: interior design, music, literature, dance, photography, medical science, and the visual arts. Throughout the essays, liu kang's contributions as a first generation nanyang artist and art educator come to the fore through his thoughts and ideas about art societies, exhibitions, artists, the development of art education, and the growth of art in singapore and the region. They have been translated into english for this volume, and are accompanied by commentaries that help contextualise one's reading. This volume also contains snapshots of the artist's life from old photographs of liu kang travelling or painting, to that of the people he wrote about in his essays. Liu kang: essays on art and culture is a testament to the inexorable passion of an artist who knew no boundaries. This collection of 80 essays, which liu kang wrote in chinese over 44 years, offers an insight into the artist's myriad interests: interior design, music, literature, dance, photography, medical science, and the visual arts.

Birth Order And Personality Essay

Want to know more about liu kang? the national art gallery, singapore has published a series of liu kang related titles for your reading pleasure. s$9 before gst available at kinokuniya, times, pageone, borders and select to order, please email masitah at [email protected] isbn 13: 978–981 08–7997 6 the book introduces the world of singapore artist liu kang to young children ages four and above through fun and engaging ideas and activities. The influence of cultural heritage and art from europe and asia is found everywhere in liu kang’s colourful and lively paintings. Making pop up pictures and creating one’s very own balinese headdress provide opportunities for play based learning about different cultures. Information about the artist and his works, as well as a glossary, are included.

Below is an essay on liu kang from �heap essayz, your source for research papers, essays, and term paper examples. Liu kang, who was born in 1911 in fujian china, is considered one of singapore’ s most important artist and a guiding figure in the development of singapore’s art scene. He then went to study at the shanghai college of fine arts and, later, the xinhua academy of fine arts in shanghai. He travelled to paris to study at the académie de la grande chaumière from 1929 till 1933, and his works were exhibited in france.

He became professor of western art at the shanghai college of fine arts in 1933when the sino japanese war broke out in 1937, he resettled in malaysia. During his time there, he was influenced by impressionists en post impressionists artists like matisse, gauguin and cezanne. The first that will pop up in your mind is van gogh, who also had a great influence in liu kang’ s style. It is an oil on canvas painting and he used the same bright and strong colours as van gogh.

Detail is that liu kang wrote belgique in the painting, which assumes that he painted it in belgium. In paris he met two other asian artists called lou fei and liu haisu and together they travelled to switzerland, belgium and italy to visit museums and sites. See the similarities? this painting really shows all the different influences from the dutch and french painters. Went on an artistic field trip to bali, indonesia with fellow visual arts pioneers chen chong swee, cheong soo pieng and chen wen hsi, resulting in the birth of the nanyang style.

Liu kang was an influential pioneering singapore first generation artist, art educator and critic who, together with cheong soo pieng, chen chong swee and chen wen hsi, birthed the nanyang style. He taught art at various schools, was president of the far reaching society of chinese artists and the singapore art society, and wrote many critical essays on art. Together with his fellow nanyang style painters, liu developed a large body of work expressing a unique southeast asian consciousness as experienced by the chinese diaspora.

Liu received the bintang bakti masyarakat public service star in 1970 and the pingat jasa gemilang meritorious service medal in 1996 for his contributions to visual arts in singapore. Born in 1911 in yongchun, china, a six year old liu kang moved with his family to muar, malaya where his father purchased a rubber plantation. Liu attended chung hwa school and then chinese high school in singapore, and was sent to china to continue his secondary school education in jinan university middle school in shanghai. During the school holidays, liu attended a two month long art course at the shanghai academy of fine arts. Recognising his talent for art, liu was allowed to enrol in the academy, starting his formal art education in the second year of the art programme.

During this time, he would also come to know the sister of his fellow artist chen jen hao, chen jen ping, who would become his wife ten years later. Graduating from the academy in 1928 together with chen jen hao, liu travelled to paris, france to further his art education at the acad 233 mie de la grande chaumi 232 re from 1929 to 1933. In this new artistically rich environment, he found great inspiration in the works of gauguin, van gogh, matisse and c 233 zanne. Completing his course at the acad 233 mie de la grande chaumi 232 re, liu returned to shanghai and joined the shanghai academy of fine arts as its youngest professor, teaching western painting.

In 1937, shortly after marrying chen jen ping, shanghai fell to the japanese invasion and the couple moved to malaya. For five years, liu taught at the nan chiau teachers training college and chung cheng high school in singapore. When the japanese army eventually reached singapore in 1942, liu, his wife and chen jen hao immediately moved to muar where he opened a coffeeshop with his brother in law. In their haste to avoid the war, liu left behind many of his paintings in singapore. To escape japanese prosecution of the intelligentsia in muar, he moved alone to singapore soon after to work as a commercial sign painter.

During his time in malaya, liu witnessed war atrocities committed by the japanese army against chinese men, women and children. The memories of what he had seen haunted him and in 1946, when he moved with his family to singapore after the japanese occupation was over, he published chop suey. A multi volume book of illustrations depicting in sometimes graphic detail the horrors that the japanese army had inflicted on people in malaya. Back in singapore, liu began serving as the president of the society of chinese artists, which had a far reaching membership and influence in southeast asia. He reconnected with old shanghai academy schoolmates and fellow artists from the society such as chen wen hsi, cheong soo pieng and cheng chong swee.

In 1952, the four of them went on their historic excursion to bali where they stayed for a few months and were greatly rejuvenated and inspired by the sights, sounds, rhythms and colours of bali, resulting in the birth of the nanyang style of art. The works showed the artist in a new phase of maturity, which saw him seeking to represent the experience of the chinese diaspora in southeast asia. The depiction of local people laboring or engrossed in ordinary activity was the dominant theme of his paintings in the 50s such as building site/samsui women 1951 , offerings 1957 and durian vendors 1957.

His earlier paintings had shown influences of post impressionism and fauvism in their expressiveness, intense colours and form, as well as possible influences of chinese painting with their composition and brush strokes. Now, they exhibited indigenous southeast asian influences with their brighter hues, flatter forms and bold outlines of white. During this time, liu kang also took up teaching positions at various schools including nanyang girls high, chinese high school and dunman high school, of which the principal was his brother in law and old friend chen jen hao. He also wrote many critical essays on art, expressing his thoughts on art education in singapore, art criticism and development. In 1968, he became a founding member of the singapore art society, and served as its president for 11 years until 1979.