Rambutans

Collections
1034579
Title
Rambutans
Year/Period
c.1965
Region
Singapore
Dimension
Image size: 55.3 x 38.2 cm,
Frame size: H70.3 x W53 x D7.1 cm
Accession No.
P-0815
Credit Line
Gift of Lee Foundation

Born in China in 1906, Georgette Chen Li Ying received her art education in Paris, New York as well as in Shanghai. Chen’s artistic oeuvre can be divided into three phases, French Period (1927-1933); China-Hong Kong Period (1934-1948) and Penang-Singapore Period (1949-1980). Immensely inspired by her surroundings she produced still lifes, portraits and landscapes from each phase. Settling in Singapore in 1954, she taught at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts till her retirement in 1980. Regarded as a Pioneer Artist of Singapore who developed the Nanyang Style, she was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 1982. Chen passed away in 1993 in Singapore.The decade from 1955 to 1965 is considered to be the period when Chen produced her finest still lifes. She was known to put great effort in composing her works; here, two bunches of rambutans serve as counterweights against the other to achieve aesthetic balance.