Reframing masters

Reframing masters

National Gallery Singapore's new exhibition connects artists and challenges the hierarchy of modernism

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Reframing masters
Nguyen Gia Tri's The Fairies.

As if the collection of Southeast Asian modern art at the recently opened National Gallery Singapore wasn't overwhelmingly impressive enough, the gallery has recently launched yet another show which, and this is no overstatement, is in itself worth making a trip to the Lion City.

The artists in this exhibition? None other than Vassily Kandinsky, Fernand Léger, Marc Chagall, Jean Dubuffet, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Entitled "Reframing Modernism", this exhibition -- an inaugural show at the Singtel Special Exhibition Gallery -- is co-curated and co-presented with Centre Pompidou, Paris, showcasing more than 200 works from as many as 50 artists.

Displayed along those masterpieces from Centre Pompidou's collection are significant works by artists from Southeast Asia, like Le Pho (Vietnam), S. Sudjojono (Indonesia), Affandi (Indonesia), Latiff Mohidin (Malaysia), Georgette Chen (Singapore). Immediately after entering Gallery 1, visitors will see Vietnamese Nguyen Gia Tri's The Fairies displayed opposite Henri Matisse's Interior In Yellow And Blue, and even untrained viewers are likely to feel some resonance between the two, from their flatness, to the decorative aspect in both works. It is this sense of connection, whether in technique or style, that continues throughout the three galleries.

"It has taken over two years to develop this exhibition with Centre Pompidou," said Dr Eugene Tan, director at National Gallery Singapore. "By drawing artists from different regions to the same exhibition, the goal is to unsettle some of the assumptions about the history of modernism."

What's refreshing about this show is how one gets the feeling that the sense of hierarchy in the art world is very much disregarded. The wall text next to Georges Braque's series of works suggests that viewers consider the pioneering force of cubism with works by Thai artist Sompot Upa-In. A series of works by Léger is paired with that by Thai artist Prasong Patamanuj.

In a recent interview with Life, Nicolas Liucci-Goutnikov, curator at Musée National d'Art Moderne of the Centre Pompidou, and National Gallery Singapore curator Dr Phoebe Scott discuss more about "reforming modernism" and the process of curating the show.

What was the curatorial process?

Scott: We proposed a list of artists from Southeast Asia that was designed to represent diversity of practices in this region, and it was really important for us that we didn't create some kind of essentialist or cliched perspective on what is Southeast Asian modernism. We prepared a dossier of each artist and some research material and images and then sent them to Centre Pompidou for their consideration. They responded by reading the research very carefully and thinking about their collection and where they can pick up an idea or a thread that has some sort of resonance between the two, and then it became a back-and-forth dialogue. We added artists and they added artists.

What did you learn from curating this show?

Liucci-Goutnikov: Not only did I get to understand the quality and singularity of the works according to the different contexts of all these artists [in Southeast Asia], it was also a challenge for me as it forced me to change my 'software' in the way that I evaluate artworks in the West. The Western art narrative is not simple but we know that there is a succession of movements and with my training I can easily understand what's going on. But here what struck me since the very beginning was that the way artists appropriate other influences is different and you can't really think in terms of style or schools.

Big names are displayed next to those relatively lesser known. Is this an intentional attempt to break the sense of hierarchy?

It's more interesting to think about how an artist has brought something new in his own context and experience than to think about great masters and who are better than others. The idea is more to create echoes between artists. The purpose is just to let the viewers understand that there are singularities about those artworks, sometimes they echo and share the same concerns.

Will viewers without an art background be able to grasp the connection?

The conceptual side of it could be very remote, and it's important that their resonances are graspable in visual terms so viewers can come in and sense the kind of connection we are trying to make without having to read too much framing texts and research material. The sense of connection between artists, the echoes, will be really apparent.

So what is 'modernism reframed'?

The reframing is not necessarily of the term modernism itself but of its expansiveness and application. So in the end modernism doesn't just belong in one place, but it's very dynamically and actively taken up. In this exhibition, we had to find a way of explaining modernism that was suitable for the circumstances of both sets of artists but also didn't stretch the concept of modernism so far that it became unrecognisable and meaningless.


"Reforming Modernism" is on display until July 17 at National Gallery Singapore.

Displayed next to George Braque's works, right wall, are works by Thai artists Prasong Patamanuj, middle and Sompot Upa-In, left.

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