Georgette Chen: 5 Things to Know About the Life and Art of the Singapore Pioneer Artist

The Nanyang artist was key to the development of modern art in Singapore

In a visual arts scene that was once male-dominated in its early years, Georgette Chen was one of the rare female artists. The first-generation Singaporean painter was one of the pioneers of the Nanyang-style art movement, alongside Liu Kang, Chen Chong Swee, Chen Wen Hsi and Cheong Soo Pieng. And like many of her peers, Chen was also very much involved in arts education, teaching part-time at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts until her retirement in 1981. For her contributions to the arts in Singapore, Chen was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 1982.

1. She spent her younger years in Paris, New York and Shanghai

Above Self Portrait (1946) by Georgette Chen (Image: National Gallery Singapore)

Georgette Chen was born Chang Liying on October 17, 1906, in Zhejiang, China. Her family moved to Paris in 1914, after the 1911 Chinese Revolution. Her diplomat and businessman father was a close friend and supporter of Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat Sen.

Chen studied art at the Art Students’ League in New York, as well as the Académie Colarossi and Académie Biloul in Paris, where she was influenced by the work of post-impressionist artists such as Paul Cézanne.

She debuted as a professional artist in 1930, when two of her paintings, Nu and Vue sur La Seine aux Andelys (View of the Seine at Les Andelys), were exhibited at a Salon d’Automne exhibition, which famously showed the works of Picasso, Matisse and Cézanne.

2. She met the love of her life and muse through one of the Soong sisters

The same year, Chen married Chinese diplomat Eugene Chen, who was introduced to her by Sun’s wife, Soong Ching Ling, one of the famed Soong sisters, who played significant roles in the development of modern China.

Eugene became a frequent muse of Chen’s, who by then had become a full-time artist exhibiting all over the world. When war broke out, the couple was placed and kept under house arrest by the Japanese, and Eugene later died in 1944.

Chen remarried three years later. She and her second husband Ho Yung Chi moved to Penang, where she worked as an art teacher. The pair later divorced and Chen came to Singapore in 1954.

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3. She painted mainly local subjects, from landscapes, still lifes and portraits, wherever she was based

Above Lotus in a Breeze (1970) by Georgette Chen (Image: Google Arts and Culture)

The years Chen spent in Southeast Asia were said to be some of the most artistically significant to her body of work. She depicted local subjects, including the people and vibrant cultures of the region, with Western and Chinese styles and techniques. Some of her most significant works include Family Portrait (1954), Still Life: Moon Festival Table (1968) and Lotus in a Breeze (1970).

4. She was a pioneer of the Nanyang art movement

This combination of Asian themes with Western art techniques was known as the Nanyang art, where Chen, together with Liu Kang, Chen Chong Swee, Chen Wen Hsi and Cheong Soo Pieng, were the pioneers. The Nanyang art movement left an imprint on the development of modern art in Singapore.

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5. She made a significant impact on arts education in Singapore

Chen devoted her life to painting and teaching. In Singapore, she also worked as a part-time art teacher at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts for almost three decades, when she mentored and supported other artists. Upon her retirement in 1981, she continued to hold exhibitions around the region. She died on March 15, 1993, from complications due to rheumatoid arthritis.

The National Gallery Singapore featured some of Chen’s most significant works in Georgette Chen: At Home in the World, the first museum retrospective of the artist in more than 20 years, from November 2020 to September this year.

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Georgette Chen Singapore pioneer artist singapore artist visual arts Nanyang art paintings