singapore art museum

I was walking around the Bras Basah area trying to find Sculptor Square where Reg's friend held his art exhibition until I gave up and went to the singapore art museum to rest my tired legs. Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi's "chaotic strokes" paintings were awesome, reminding me of McFarlane's Spiderman and Spawn. It's probably odd to compare high art with comic art and Zeng's art is like an amalgamation of both-caricatures surrounded by harrowing wild black strokes. Zeng applied this style on a Karl Marx portrait maybe suggesting that unfettered passions of idealism-the theme of his exhibition--can become scary dark forces. hmm.. Moving on the museum has some pretty outstanding works from the Southeast Asian region. My favourite among the collection on display are Affandi's works. He is an eminent Indonesian artist (1907-1990) who is hailed as "Indonesia's founding father of modern art". I particularly like his "modern" treatment of traditional Southeast Asians imagery like the rooster and swordfish, rendering them more abstract and yet at the same time incredibly expressive. I imagine it's his experience living through the World Wars and Indonesian independence that gives his art such a dark edge. But really, there's no need for such works to remind us of the harsh reality when there's hardly any good news anymore.

Couple of Affandi's works at artnet: http://www.artnet.com/artist/667635/affandi.html
Short bio on Affandi at wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affandi
Zeng Fanzhi's press release at channelnewsasia: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/273420/1/.html