Chen chong swee national gallery art

Discover Singapore Art

Explore some of the masterpieces by the pioneer painters of the Nanyang school of art belonging to the National Collection and hanging in the National Gallery Singapore.

Painter Chen Chong Swee might not be as instantly recognisable a name as Georgette Chen, Liu Kang or Cheong Soo Pieng.

But his works are immediately identifiable as uniquely Singaporean, with a signature fusion of Chinese ink traditions and Singaporean subject matter.

He was one of the earliest Singapore artists to focus on painting Malay villages.

In his works, one sees everyday life in Singapore in the first half of the 20th century.

Chen chong swee national gallery art dc

Fishing jetties, kampungs and people going about their daily routines abound in his paintings.

One of his most charming works in the National Collection is Ice Kachang Vendor, depicting a hawker making an ice ball treat for a young customer under the shelter of an enormous tree.

Pig Farm, an undated work, embodies Chen’s philosophy that art