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A thread of paintings by Liu Kang [1911–2004], a Singaporean artist who was born in Fujian, studied in Shanghai and Paris, and sought to convey a Southeast Asian visual style, aka Nanyang style https://t.co/LZknp78BgM
This is a painting of Arab Street in 1962. When friends visit Singapore I often take them for a walk along this stretch – it's a nice place to people watch, and there are some great food options too https://t.co/na5XsiZDSy
Here's a painting of Indian musicians from 1972. I wonder where exactly this was, and whether he was literally painting people while they were performing. I believe this was during his 1971 visit to India, ie it's not in Singapore. Wholesome energy https://t.co/8BxPa71QwG
This is a fun one – this is a painting of Chin Nam Street in 1951. That's the old Supreme Court building, which is now the National Gallery (ie a museum). I love the chaotic energy – people hanging out their laundry, rickshaws, carts, a dog... https://t.co/SJPxy1ciPH
Life By The River [1975] – this was village life in kampongs in the 1970s, near Pasir Panjang. People feeding ducks and hanging out. I had to look up photos because this stuff looks so alien to me. Singapore changed very, very quickly in those decades https://t.co/9nhMRAyVJN
Trengganu Street in 1951. Y'know, it doesn't look all that different today! It still kind of has the same vibe, though maybe a bit more touristy, and with taller buildings in the background (which I think is cool). Of course, it's probably totally deserted at this moment... https://t.co/UPm7suHpND
This is an interesting one – National Day, 1967, just two years after Singapore became independent. We've gotten quite a bit more cinematic since. I find myself thinking about what it must've been like when it was something freshly invented, after years of turbulence and changes https://t.co/ljGC07bhps
In 1951, Liu Kang and several other artists went to Bali, where they found an abundance of male painters' favorite subject throughout history: the titty https://t.co/09VOTFLogM
So far I've been focusing on the "Nanyang style", but this guy actually was much more prolific and has had multiple stylistic evolutions https://t.co/ijzyD5QyI3
he did many paintings of the Huangshan Mountains in China, which are between Wuhan and Shanghai. I imagine there must be literally millions of paintings about Huangshan, which really have this mystic, haunting, magical quality to them, particularly when there's fog https://t.co/TZ4SAuIufT
