VISUAL ARTS GROUP - THE SOCIETY OF CHINESE ARTISTS
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INTRODUCTION
The late 1920s to the mid-1930s were therefore years when visual art activities blossomed in Singapore. Nan Sing Arts Association and the Nanyang journalistic Caricature Association were active during this period. The Society of Chinese Artists was established in 1935, marking the beginning of art institutions in Singapore.
Originally named the Salon Art Society, the Society of Chinese Artists adopted its current name in its second year (1936). Its founding members were Cai Zhuzhen, Li Yunyang, Ling Daoan, Xu Junlian, Zhang Bohe, Ling Tian, Chen Shengping, Liu Gongxi, Huang Cheng Chuan and Li Kuishi. This list lengthened at the society's second meeting in the latter part of 1935 to include Tchang Ju Chi, Zhuang Yiuzhao, Lu Heng, Lai Wen Kee, Gao Zhengsheng and Chen Chong Swee. This core membership, with several from Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong were mosty alumni of Shanghainese art academies: The Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University of Art and Xinhua Academy of Fine Arts.
The Society of Chinese Artists was therefore exposed to the ideals held by the May Fourth Movement in China. This awareness made a crucial difference to the Society's aesthetic orientation compared to that of United Artists Malaysia in the late-1920s and early 1930s. While the United Artists Malaysia promoted ink painting and calligraphy, the Society of Chinese Artists were inspired by Western art, their idioms of expression a range of representational renditions from Academic Realism to the more formal and expressionistic concerns of Post-impressionist trends, But the significance went beyond style. The Society of Chinese Artists believed in the communicative and educational functions of art -- a fundamental change from the notion of art as an elitist cultural pursuit as espouced by United Artists Malaysia. This new aesthetic would form the foundation of art in Singapore in the 1930s and 1940s, the preamble to the Nanyang School of the 1950s.
中华美术研究会简介
1935年由上海美术专科学校、新华艺术专科学校、上海艺术大学居留新加坡的学生发起成立。原名为沙龙艺术研究会,见员10余人。同年底改称中华美术研究会,会员增至40余人。
1936年注册为社团。1947年发起庆祝美术节。1959年被推举为新加坡艺术理事会理事。
1972年设人体写生组、野外写生组。
曾组织绘画比赛和访华考察团。战后每年举办常年美展,主办或合办过:厘旅行画展、名画欣赏会、韩国现代美展、全国美展、马来西亚美展、近代名家书法展、名人书法展、中国名家画展、扬州八怪书画展、当地陶器及版画展、筹募文化基金美展等。也曾为关山月、王兰若、徐悲鸿、张大千、李曼峰等名家举办画展。
历任会长有:张汝器、何光辉、刘抗、郑天送、陈文希、陈宗端、黄葆芳、陈人浩、叶之威、卢明德、施香沱、姚天佑、黄建斌、符致珊等。
