T.K.Sabapathy on Lean's exhibition 'Facets of a Woman' in 1995

T.K. Sabapathy is an art historian and art critic in Singapore. He has researched and published extensively on art in Southeast Asia, providing important foundations for the study of art in the region. He co-edited the book ‘Eye of the Beholder : Reception, Audience , And Practice of Modern Asian Art' (2007) and is the author of ‘Configuring the Body : Form and Tenor in Ng Eng Teng's Art’ (2003), ‘Past, Present, Beyond : Re-Nascence of an Art Collection’ (2002); 'Modernity and Beyond : Themes in Southeast Asian Art' (1996), 'Vision and Idea : Relooking Modern Malaysian Art' (1994) and 'Sculpture in Singapore : National Museum Art Gallery, Singapore, 16 November-15 December 1991'.

She Knows All, 1994, Oil on canvas,120x90cm.
Collection of Channie Chan, Canada

Portraits bring into relief complex relationships and high expectations. Firstly, there is the reference or allusion to an original, to the artist’s intention to portray someone. Such aims lead to queries such as: What is the nature of the connection between the artist and the person portrayed? Or, for that matter, what forces prompt, instigate and sustain this connection? Questions such as these do have to do with ways by which relationships between the self and the other are negotiated and fixed at any moment or for any occasion.

Secondly, portraits come into existence along the terrain where art and social life intersect or collide with each other; the force of social norms affect the artist and the subject as both are enmeshed in the value systems of their society. In this sense, portraits vividly exemplify conventions or codes by which who a person is and how a person appears, are developed and crystallized. For, to be an artist is to assume a public presence and appear in public.

Thirdly, there is the fascinating yet enormously difficult task of conveying personhood. A portrait is not just an aggregate of social codes; nor is it only a social artifact. That is to say, when encountering a portrait, viewers expect artists to express an individual’s personality and identity. And however implausible it may seem, it is expected that a sense of inner character or soul be somehow revealed or demonstrated in portraits.

Chew Lean Im’s series of paintings and drawings, all of which are portraits of her mother, can be read as touching all these three bases, namely: the relationship between the artist and her subject, conventions by which a person is presented to the public, and conveying or expressing the personality of her mother. Conceptually and formally, she has made promising beginnings.

A wedding photograph is the spur for her development. Taken in 1932, it features her mother (a bride at the age of seventeen), seated in a deep, curved chair with her head slightly bowed and staring in a fixed manner; her right hand is crossed over her abdomen, while her left is placed above her knee; her feet point inwards. If her mother appears dimunitive or tentative, then her father stands upright and looks out of the picture confidently and strikes a commanding presence.

Mum as a young bride, 1994

Acrylic on canvas, 90x60cm

This photographic image of her mother is the source for a number of compositions (her father appears infrequently, and when he does, only partially). In these pictures, she is presented formally, placed at a distance and appears inaccessible – an impression conveyed by the mask-like rendering of the face.

Lean Im also portrays her mother in distinct environments or surroundings, seeking to symbolically represent her interests and involvements in the social and cultural fields. In them, her mother is presented frontally and at close range, with attributes signalling her interest in opera, and in ascertaining character by reading a person’s face and palm. In these compositions, Lean Im projects her mother as a person with a forceful presence, able to deal with and shape her surroundings on her own terms.

Mum, 1993, Pen 40 x 30 cm

There are also a number of intimate and scrutinizing disclosures; these are particularly vivid and concrete in her drawings. Lean Im comes face to face with her mother, and holds her stance without flinching. Drawing is a medium she should develop as it can be a powerful means for fixing and expressing highly-charged, emotional states.

T.K.Sabapathy
April 1995