Re-connecting: Selected Writings on Singapore Art and Art Criticism

Liu Kang (1911-2004) and Ho Ho Ying (1936-) are important painters in Singapore’s art history. But along with their creative practices, they also played key roles as art writers and critics. Their opposing positions on modernism and abstraction, and the debate and discussion generated between them, both shaped and reflected Singapore’s art scene through the 1950s, 60s and 70s and well into the 1980s. These selected writings, mostly drawn from the Chinese-language press, and now translated into English, vividly document important phases in Singapore’s art history. The editorial team of T. K. Sabapathy, and Cheo Chai-Hiang has an unparalleled understanding of the critical landscape in which Singapore’s art has developed over the years. Cheo’s introduction of Liu Kang and Ho Ho Ying as writers establishes certain key themes in the relationship between art and criticism in Singapore and Southeast Asia, with its many artist-writers and artist-critics. Those in Singapore’s art world often assume that they work, write and read in a critical vacuum, but as this book shows, this conclusion is far from the truth.