SHIFTING IMAGES: WOMEN & ART IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

This thesis is entitled "Shifting Images" because it depicts the manner in which the image of women artists changes over the half century after the war. In the five decades after the restoration of peace, women artists have gone through change in a number of ways. One is the issue of prominence. From the few prominent women artists of the 1950s and 1960s, the numbers have substantially increased in the last ten to fifteen years. The number of women who have become professional artists have also increased substantially. In the contemporary period, the role of women artists as social commentators has also developed. The first chapter examines the development of art in the early history of modern Singapore, which includes a discussion of the limitations of the historiography of local art. It will reveal the presence of relatively few artists in Singapore, with any development being on private and individual bases. The second chapter looks at the immediate post-war period, when the arrival of the 'Nanyang artists' heralds the beginnings of home-grown art. The "artist-teachers" are examined for their contribution to the devlopment of local artists. The third chapter is concerned with the "second generation" of artists. Many of them were students of the pioneers, who constituted a wave of artists who went abroad to further their artistic studies. The fourth chapter examines the 1980s and 1990s, where the prominence of women artists is greatly enhanced. It looks at the experiences of four women artists, an illustration of the diverse and multi-faceted concerns of artists of the present. The concluding chapter discusses the current state of art, and attempts to answer some of the questions raised in the course of discussion.