Singapore opens a window onto the art of Southeast Asia, past and present

At a media briefing ahead of the officially opening of the National Gallery Singapore last month, a veteran art writer from Indonesia asked the panel of curators why the new museum had two separate permanent modern art exhibitions – one for Singapore and one for Southeast Asia – as if the Lion City wasn’t part of the region.

It’s an interesting question – one that raises the issue of not only how the city state sees its art history and development in relation to the rest of Southeast Asia in the past but also how it positions itself as a promoter of regional art to the rest of the world in the future.

To tell that story, it’s important to look at what had been happening in Singapore’s neighbours, how art practices there were shaped by social and political changes over the past 150 years, as well as the development of its own art.

And that explains the two permanent galleries. “With the Singapore Gallery we are able to go in depth into most of the important aspects of our own history, whereas for the Southeast Asia Gallery, this is the first time there is a permanent exhibition devoted in presenting a regional perspective,” says Tan.

So Singaporean artists will be featured in the Southeast Asia exhibition and vice versa, adds Low Sze Wee, the National Gallery’s director of curatorial and collections.