2018 is the year NAFA celebrates 80 years of art education in Singapore’s art and cultural landscape. To commemorate this occasion, a selection of exhibits from the NAFA Art Collection in this showcase illustrates the practice of the Academy’s early and present educators, as well as alumni. In the early days of the Academy, founding principal, Lim Hak Tai, himself a consummate artist, together with Singapore’s pioneer artists such as Cheong Soo Pieng, Chen Chong Swee and Georgette Chen not only played pivotal roles in instilling the rigour of foundational skills and techniques in the curriculum. In combining the rudiments of art both from the East and the West these artists also embraced the spirit of reinvention and modernity in their teachings as well as their artistic practices. It is this spirit that remains profoundly rooted in the Academy’s curriculum and has been passed on from generation to generation.
TRACE: The practice of NAFA’s educators and alumni across generations
Artist(s)
Chen Chong Swee 陈宗端
Cheong Soo Pieng 钟泗宾
Chua Ek Kay 蔡逸溪
Claire Cheng
Foo Chee San 符致珊
