The Private Museum presents Khoo Sui Hoe: An Overview Part I – The Artist Collection from 1980s to Present, the first of a two-part major exhibition of the Malaysian painter, Khoo Sui Hoe. Known for his inimitable surrealistic stylisation of masks, figures and landscapes, this selection comprises of 25 paintings from the Artist’s private collection.
A former graduate from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1961, Khoo was under the tutelage of Cheong Soo Pieng and Georgette Chen. Following his move from Malaysia to the West in 1982, this collection portrays Khoo’s evolving artistic practice and development which spans Singapore, Malaysia and United States.
This exhibition will continue to Khoo Sui Hoe: An Overview Part II – The Patron, Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat’s Collection which consists of Khoo’s earlier works from the 1960s to 1980s. Highlights include significant works presented from the Patron’s perspective, including Children of the Sun as collected by distinguished collector and lifelong friend.
In conjunction with Singapore Art Week, The Private Museum is proud to present Khoo Sui Hoe: An Overview Part II – The Patron, Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat’s Collection from 1960s to 1980s. Drawing from the single largest collection of Khoo Sui Hoe, the exhibition showcases a selection of 16 significant paintings, honouring the friendship and patronage of the artist’s foremost patron, Datuk Seri Lim.
The collection traces Khoos’s earlier artistic career which spans the South East Asian Peninsula. It encompasses his unadulterated artistic explorations of landscapes and figures, which Datuk Seri Lim termed as “Inscape with Figures”; inspired by the rivers and rubber estates of his hometown, Kedah, the abstraction of mountains in Cameron Highlands and the composition of clouds in Thailand.
The highlight of the exhibition is Children of the Sun, Khoo’s first monumental painting which was commissioned for the Singapore Conference Hall in 1965. Marking the 50th year anniversary of its creation, the Children of the Sun returns to be exhibited in Singapore.