Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond

What is modernism in Southeast Asia? What is modern art, as embodied in the paintings of Southeast Asia? These questions and more are answered in Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond, published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name. Featuring 217 works by 51 Southeast Asian and European artists, from the Centre Pompidou and National Gallery Singapore as well as other Southeast Asian collections in the region and beyond, this catalogue tells the compelling story of modernism as it developed across continents, and reveals artists’ powerful, and sometimes surprising, responses to modernity.

Publisher: National Gallery Singapore
Author Biography: Low Sze Wee is Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre. With a background in law, he later completed postgraduate studies in History of Art from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in 1999, and Southeast Asian Studies from the National University of Singapore in 2010. Sze Wee has curated many local and international exhibitions, including important retrospectives on Singaporean artists and the Singapore pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. In 2013, Sze Wee was the first Singaporean to be named a fellow of the prestigious Clore Leadership Programme. Formerly heading the curatorial departments at the Singapore Art Museum and then National Gallery Singapore, he was a key member of the inaugural team that oversaw the National Gallery’s opening in 2015. Sze Wee has also been involved in strategic arts planning and policy in Singapore’s Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts. Phoebe Scott is a curator at the National Gallery Singapore. In 2017, she curated the exhibition Radiant Material: A Dialogue in Vietnamese Lacquer Painting, which featured a 1930s lacquer painting by Nguy?n Gia Trí in dialogue with a special commission by Phi Phi Oanh. Phoebe also co-curated Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond (2016), a collaborative exhibition with the Centre Pompidou, as well as the inaugural exhibition of the Southeast Asia galleries at National Gallery Singapore, Between Declarations and Dreams: Art of Southeast Asia since the 19th Century (2015). Phoebe is also an adjunct lecturer in art history at the National University of Singapore. Prior to joining National Gallery Singapore, she completed her PhD at the University of Sydney on the subject of modern Vietnamese art. Horikawa Lisa is Director (Curatorial and Collections) at National Gallery Singapore. Lisa co-curated (Re)collect: The making of our art collection (2018), Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond (2016), a collaborative exhibition with the Centre Pompidou, as well as the inaugural exhibition of the Southeast Asia galleries at National Gallery Singapore, Between Declarations and Dreams: Art of Southeast Asia since the 19th Century (2015).
Language: English
Country of Origin: Singapore
Page count: 248
Binding: Hardback
Search words: Southeast Asia, Southeast Asia art, Centre Pompidou, Modernism, Modern art