Learning from the art pioneers

When artist and art critic Ho Ho Ying was a student at The Chinese High School, he had the privilege of learning from the best.

"Four pioneer artists were teachers in the school: Liu Kang, Chen Wen Hsi, Cheong Soo Pieng and Chen Chong Swee," recalls Ho, 79.

"Liu Kang taught me the basics of the Western style and how to draw objects and scenery very realistically. Chen Wen Hsi taught me how to use colour, and how to use my own imagination to draw an object. Their teaching methods were very different and I was influenced by both of them."

Their guidance led him to develop his own unconventional approach to art, which is on display at a solo exhibition at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

Ho Ho Ying - Present features more than 80 pieces of artwork from the 1950s, when Ho was still in secondary school, right up to 2011. The exhibition, his seventh solo show, is to commemorate him receiving the Cultural Medallion in 2012.

Ms Bridget Tracy Tan, director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Arts and Art Galleries and curator of the show, says that she tried to select works from different milestones in Ho's career.

She says: "The exhibition contains more works than we ordinarily would have. But in this case, it's not a question of squeezing things in without thought. It was installed to provide a visual texture and means of graphic intensity."

Ho, who was born in Hainan, China, and moved to Singapore in 1942, was a voracious learner when he was young. He says: "At that time, I stayed at Duchess Road, near what was the Singapore University. Its library had a lot of art books and when I was free after school, I'd go read up on Van Gogh, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, Renoir... and so I was also influenced by the late 19th century masters in the West."

After graduating from The Chinese High School, Ho went on to study Chinese Language and Literature at the Nanyang University, and served as president of the Singapore Art Society from 1984 to 1995.

Assimilating his exposure to a wide variety of influences, he developed his own unconventional style. In the current exhibition, some of his paintings are on the back of the canvas instead of the front, and the calligraphy scrolls which are hung on the wall are not constrained by the usual neat rows of lettering, but instead house exuberant, colourful characters.

He says of his tendency to eschew tradition: "Usually, we draw paintings from the centre to the side; but, sometimes, I draw from the side to the centre, or from both directions. Sometimes, I also use boundaries as the focus instead of the centre. These things make it more interesting."

The married father of four also says that when creating art, thinking and interpretation are a must.

"You can't just see the object and feed back the same object. You must digest it with your own thinking, your own philosophy, your own skill and begin to form your own style, that's very important."

View it

HO HO YING - PRESENT
Where: Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Campus 1, 80 Bencoolen Street, Galleries 1 and 2
When: Now till March 30, Tuesdays to Saturdays, 11am to 7pm, closed on Mondays
Admission: Free

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