Lost Lee Kuan Yew painting, forgotten artworks and other rediscovered gems
Amid the fanfare of SG60, several institutions are spotlighting artists and works long overlooked
[SINGAPORE] As the country turns 60, various art institutions are marking the milestone with a wide-ranging celebration of local talent. But what’s surprising is the wave of rediscoveries: a “lost” Lee Kuan Yew painting, overlooked artworks by non-Chinese and women artists, and other striking pieces that have fallen through the cracks of official art history.
We look at some of these forgotten artworks that offer a different lens on the stories, struggles and successes of Singapore.
An LKY painting lost to time
In 1992, watercolourist Ong Kim Seng painted a scene based on a 1961 National Archives photograph. The image showed then-prime minister Lee Kuan Yew visiting the victims of the devastating Bukit Ho Swee fire, accompanied by fellow first-generation leaders S Rajaratnam, Goh Keng Swee and Lee Khoon Choy.
The fire – one of Singapore’s most catastrophic – swept through about 100 acres of kampong land, destroying around 2,800 attap houses and leaving nearly 16,000 people homeless. It marked a turning point in Singapore’s housing history, catalysing the shift from kampong dwellings to high-rise public housing.
“I was 16 when the fire happened,” Ong recalls. “I, too, lived in an attap house with my mother and grandmother. Fire was a constant threat, especially during festive seasons when there were firecrackers and incense.”
The painting was so vivid, it was reproduced on The Straits Times’ back page in 1992. Ong then entrusted the painting to a gallerist, who sold it to a collector. But Ong never met the buyer and eventually lost contact with the gallerist. The painting disappeared from view, but the image stayed with him.
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Decades later, Ong decided to revisit the scene to commemorate SG60. Now 80, he brings a different approach to the work: his strokes are more considered and the composition is more introspective. He’s also executed it on a larger canvas instead of paper – a subtle but significant shift that gives the new piece a quiet gravity.
The canvas has since been acquired by hotelier Sean Lim, who sees it not just as art, but as “a window into a past that shaped our present, a reminder of what it took to build the Singapore we enjoy today”.
It will be displayed for the public at Art Agenda (Tanjong Pagar Distripark) from Aug 5 to 17, before it is transferred to Lim’s conservation shophouse home for safekeeping.
Centring female and non-Chinese artists
National Gallery Singapore recently opened its new permanent exhibition, Singapore Stories: Pathways And Detours In Art, timed to coincide with SG60. But this is more than just a refresh – it marks a bold expansion in curatorial direction, centring artists who have long existed on the margins of the city-state’s art history.
“When we asked visitors what they thought of previous shows, some said they wanted to see more works by women and non-Chinese artists,” says curator Joleen Loh. “So with this rehang, we wanted to give space – actual space – to artists whose voices were never centred.”
The result is a more inclusive, pluralistic narrative. Alongside familiar names, like Kim Lim and Han Sai Por, are works by pioneering female sculptors such as Annaratnam Gunaratnam and Dora Gordine. There’s also a spotlight on Rohani Ismail, a Malay artist and co-founder of artist collective Angkatan Pelukis Aneka Daya, who was both student and muse to Nanyang pioneer Georgette Chen.
The exhibition also expands the definition of what counts as art. Ceramics, posters, textile art, and filmmaking are presented with the same weight as painting and sculpture. P Ramlee’s films, Solamalay Namasivayam’s nude drawings, and Kwan Shan Mei’s children’s book illustrations are all recognised as vital cultural expressions of their time.
Deeper into the show, the focus shifts to the underground art activities of the 1980s and ’90s: artist-run spaces, performance collectives, and cultural provocateurs operating outside – and sometimes against – mainstream institutions.
“We wanted to show how artists were constantly building their own ecosystems,” says curator Lim Qinyi. Figures like Gilles Massot and Ahmad Abu Bakar emerge in thoughtful counterpoint to dominant narratives.
The result is a richer, more porous account of Singapore’s art history – one that doesn’t just celebrate milestones, but also interrogates what’s been excluded.
Voices from the margins
Meanwhile, a soon-to-open show at the massive Whitestone Gallery is also rewriting the narrative of Singapore art. Titled Sama Sama, which means “together” in Malay, the group exhibition gathers 60 contemporary artists and collectives in a sprawling, free-for-all celebration of the country’s cultural plurality – the big, the small, and especially the voices long pushed to the periphery.
“There’s no way to ‘survey’ Singapore art history through just 60 artists,” says curator Wang Ruobing. “So I didn’t try.” Instead, Sama Sama is a curatorial experiment in radical openness. Rather than prescribing a unifying theme, Wang invited artists across generations – from 25-year-old Siew Guang Hong to 79-year-old Cheo Chai Hiang – and asked them a deceptively simple question: What work best represents you now?
The answers, it turns out, are thrillingly fragmented. “Each of them has a little story of Singapore, the everyday of Singapore,” Wang says. “Together, they paint a larger cultural landscape.”
Some pieces take aim at Singapore’s power structures, like Anthony Chin’s tall stack of S$1 coins that’s meant to reach the ceiling and “support” it – a poetic ode to the artist’s struggle to survive. Others tap into pain and ritual, like performance artist S Chandrasekaran, who marks his own skin daily as a visceral gesture of minority visibility. “His body becomes a vessel for unspoken histories,” Wang notes.
Works span paintings, photography, video installation – even noodle sculptures and a full-scale getai stage. The result is a heady, multilayered ecosystem of practices – nothing neat or linear, but unmistakably Singaporean. The show opens at the Whitestone Gallery (Tanjong Pagar Distripark) on Aug 8 and runs till Sep 28.
Five other SG60 shows worth seeing
The Art Of Lee Boon Ngan: Much has been said about artist Chua Mia Tee, but too little is known about his wife Lee, who was also a talented painter. This show at The Private Museum (Upper Wilkie Road) redresses that.
The Other Singaporeans – Stories Of Home & Identity: Highlighting artists who are naturalised citizens, expatriates, and overseas Singaporeans, the show explores themes of displacement, migration and cultural hybridity. From Aug 16 at JW Projects (Kim Yam Road).
Artist’s Proof: Singapore At 60: Now running at Helutrans (Tanjong Pagar Distripark) till Aug 17, this terrific showcase of 95 provocative pieces from the collection of businessman Chong Huai Seng includes several voices from the periphery.
Material Moves: STPI (Robertson Quay) honours the works of Singapore’s most revered veteran artists, including Han Sai Por, Goh Beng Kwan and Ong Kim Seng.
SG 60: To Build A Swing: Blending memory, architecture and emotion, the works of Akai Chew, Joanna Maneckji and Wan Kyn Chan explore what it means to belong, remember and co-create Singapore’s evolving future. From Aug 15 at LOY Contemporary Art Gallery (Tudor Court).
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