Born in 1933 in Singapore, Tan Choo Kuan was trained in Western Art at Singapore’s Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. A dedicated art teacher and prolific artist, Tan’s legacy was recognised in October 2005 with the Singapore Art Museum’s acquisition of 74 select sketches and drawings on paper completed between 1953 and 2005.In 1979, Tan toured China for the first time together with other artists from Singapore. “I love nature. It gives me inspiration and pleasure. Therefore I travel widely”, said Tan in his 1979 catalogue epilogue. However, in his sketched scenes of foreign lands Tan did not make distinctions of race in his figures nor specific references to the regions, preferring to record and present them simply as subject matters of artistic value. Unlike his paintings, Tan’s pictorial travelogues possess both East and West qualities, with the frequent inclusion of human figures within the landscape setting.
