Born in 1943 in Indonesia, Tan migrated to Singapore as a child. After graduating from the Nanyang University in Singapore in 1968, he worked at the French Embassy for 24 years before becoming a full-time artist. In 1985, Tan was awarded the Gold Medal of the French Artist Salon and in 1987, the Singapore Cultural Medallion. In 2003, Tan was honoured with the World Economic Forum Crystal Award and Singapore Meritorious Award. In 1993, Tan became the first Singapore artist to have a private museum dedicated to the display of his extensive oeuvre of artistic and literary works. In ‘Humming Birds Racing’, do we see a flock of humming birds whizzing through the air? Or do we see the path of a single bird, as it flies across the painting in a series of cartwheels and somersaults? Whether one or many, Tan has succinctly captured the joyful abandon of the humming bird. This has been achieved through his deftly-applied dabs of colour to suggest the ever-changing form of the bird, and the spontaneous manner in which blossoms seem to appear out thin air. ‘Humming Birds Racing’ is a translation of D.H. Lawrence’s poem into visual form and it exemplifies the mental freedom which enables Tan to create his masterworks.
