Quarterly - Singapore Art Museum

Appreciating Art Lecture Series
Join SAM curators for a seven-session series as they discuss how recent developments in the
region’s cultural, social and political scenes have shaped Southeast Asian contemporary art, drawing
on examples of important works that have entered SAM’s collection.
This series is held in conjunction with the exhibition, Panorama: Recent Art from Contemporary Asia.
Fridays, 20 Jul to 21 Sep* | 7.30pm – 9.00pm | Glass Hall, SAM
$12 per session, 20% discount for purchase of all 7 sessions.
Tickets available at SAM and SISTIC.
*Except for 10 Aug, 24 Aug & 31 Aug 2012.
Southeast Asian Contemporary Art: A Way of Looking
By Tan Boon Hui, SAM Director
Friday, 20 Jul
SAM director Tan Boon Hui will present an overview of the development of Southeast Asian art
from the colonial period right up to the contemporary period. The development of Modern art and
its relationship to nationalist struggles and the formation of independent national identities will also
be outlined. As a guide to interpretation, the lecture will sketch out commonalities between the
development of art across the region. He will also offer insights about how he sees Southeast Asian
art developing, given the factors shaping the art scenes and ecosystems in Southeast Asia today,
such as the increasing prominence of private collectors, the impact of the market, art fairs, Biennales,
and increasing attention from the West.
Thailand
By Michelle Ho, SAM Curator
Fri, 27 Jul
Thai art history can be traced back more than 1000 years, where Buddhist art of temple murals and
sculptures flourished through various periods. Together with the introduction of Western formalism
in Thai art academies from the early 1900s, and the burgeoning use of mixed media contemporary
mediums of installation, photography, video and performance from the 1980s, Thai contemporary
art is imbued with a diversity of visual languages that reference both tradition and the present, the
local as well as the international. This presentation examines some of the key developments in Thai
contemporary art from the 1990s to the present, looking at how artists have responded to the social
and political realities of the past decade through their art-making.
The Philippines
By Joyce Toh, SAM Senior Curator
Friday, 3 Aug
What may zombies in Hawaiian shirts, Imelda Marcos singing in shark-infested waters and dashing
dead heroes possibly have in common? Whether fact or fiction, these larger-than-life personalities
and personas have long left indelible imprints on the history and art of the Philippines. With an
emphasis on the contemporary, this lecture surveys more than a century’s worth of the art from this
multi-faceted, predominantly Catholic country which experienced the region’s longest colonial rule,
and explores how many of its inimitable figures – in art and in real life – have weaved a rich, colourful
narrative of the Philippines.
Public Programmes | 21