Wording Art

Some of my favourite artworks from the exhibition 'Into the Modern: Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston' now showing at National Gallery Singapore. 😍

I share about these artworks and more highlights in my latest post on Wording Art! I really enjoyed visiting this exhibition (and intend to visit again!!) and it's so lovely to have the rare chance to see these Impressionist works from the collection of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Landscapes, portraits, and still life - there's a great variety to see here! 🌷

Click over to wordingart.com to read more~ 🌟

At long last, I've completed my blog post on the wonderful exhibition 'The Forbidden City and the Palace of Versailles: China-France Cultural Encounters in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries'. Held at 香港故宮文化博物館 Hong Kong Palace Museum earlier this year, the exhibition showcased how France and China inspired and inspired each other through art and culture. It brought together beautiful portraits, porcelain, and various objects of material culture from the collections of the Palace Museum, Beijing and Château de Versailles. ⛩️🏰

This exhibition is exactly what I love to see, highlighting cross-cultural interactions between China and Europe during this period of time. I also think it's so fitting that the exhibition was held in Hong Kong, because it always speaks of a East meets West culture and reflects the art history I learned in Hong Kong (years ago now)! ✨ Come re-experience the exhibition with me on wordingart.com! 🇨🇳🇫🇷

In honour of , my pick for the day is John Singer Sargent's portrait of Sir Frank Swettenham (1904) at . I think many of us don't realise one of Sargent's portraits resides in Singapore.

Sargent is one of my favourite artists, and was one of the greatest portraitists of all time. He was famous for his many portraits of fashionable women, and brings that same flair to this stunning and imposing portrait.

Swettenham was a former governor of the Straits Settlements, and this full-length portrait was commissioned by the Straits Association for public view. In the same year, Sargent painted another smaller, personal-sized version for Swettenham, now in the . Second picture taken when the (smaller) portrait was shown at the fabulous 'Sargent and Fashion' exhibition at . It's very interesting to me how both portraits — same person, same pose — can be viewed differently too.

It's a special thing to view an artwork more than once — and a real treat to have a Sargent in my home city, so I try to revisit it whenever I'm at NMS! 💙

Happy International Museum Day! 🖼

To celebrate this fun day, I'm sharing some photos from the exhibition 'The Forbidden City and The Palace of Versailles: China-France Cultural Encounters in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries' that I visited earlier this year at !

The Hong Kong Palace Museum is fast becoming one of my favourite museums to visit. The moment I heard about this exhibition — ✨ which sounded like it was made for me ✨ — I knew I had to visit Hong Kong to see it! 😍

I've been very into cross-cultural interactions between Asia and Europe recently, especially during the eighteenth century. There were many beautiful artworks and objects on display from and , and showed how China and France mutually influenced each other culturally. I'd love to see more of such exhibitions in the future! 🌟

Last year, I visited London to view the wonderful Angelica Kauffman exhibition at , and along with that, finally had the chance to visit just opposite! Tucked away on the top fourth floor (if I don't remember wrongly) is this beautiful section of books on British art. 📖

While I work on getting my book manuscript published, I still dream of seeing a book of my own in a bookshop someday... 🌟

This post is actually to say that I wrote a new blog post on Wording Art about being PhDone (but I'd forgotten to share about it earlier)! It took me some time to reflect on all the things that happened over the last year, especially in that strange post-PhD limbo that I'm now realising is all part of a normal process.

Head over to Wording Art if you would like to have a read, as I muse about bringing my PhD chapter to a close and share about my research on Angelica Kauffman. 🌻
https://www.wordingart.com/2025/01/phdone-my-phd-research-angelica-kauffman/

I saw pictures of designed lanterns at for the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations and couldn't resist popping by yesterday to see them for myself! 🌕 I'm super glad I went (along with the crowds), and the lantern displays are so cute, fun, nostalgic, and happily showcase our Singaporean heritage! 🏮 My favourite is the duck character holding an ice gem lantern and with its noodle shop!

Also stayed for the light and music show at Supertree Grove 🌳 and it's just magical every time. 🎶 Bonus was also spotting the many octopus balloons (last pic) which are soo cute! 🥰

New blog post up on Wording Art about the exhibition Impressions of Monet at ! We waited to visit on my birthday, and it was the best birthday experience I could have asked for! 🩷 Claude Monet artworks, beautiful flowers 🌺, water lilies, a replica of Monet's house at Giverny 🏡, and a fantastic immersive exhibit - this is possibly my favourite exhibition in Singapore in 2024 so far!

See and read more at wordingart.com🪻Plus wishing everyone a happy Mid-Autumn festival tonight! 🐇🌕

I've spent the last few years researching Angelica Kauffman and her London self-portraits. So when I heard that the Royal Academy of Arts was re-staging a solo exhibition of Kauffman's works (where the initial run was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic), I knew I had to make a visit to London happen! 🧳🇬🇧

It was a privilege to visit London again, and to also have my family view firsthand Kauffman's works which I've dedicated so much time to studying for so long! I had the best time seeing so many of Kauffman's paintings and self-portraits up close - and I thought the exhibition was just wonderful. 🖼️

I've put together a blog post on the Angelica Kauffman exhibition at the RA on Wording Art - have a read to see some of my many favourites! 💕

Read here: https://www.wordingart.com/2024/06/london-art-angelica-kauffman-royal-academy/

I'm excited to share that my guest post on 'Angelica Kauffman: Art, Music and Poetry' is now live on Art Herstory Notes! 🎨🎶✍️
Read it here: https://artherstory.net/angelica-kauffman-art-music-and-poetry/

In this post I discuss several of Kauffman's self-portraits, of which a few are currently on show at the super lovely solo exhibition of Kauffman's works at Royal Academy of Arts, and look into her little-known designs of the allegories of Music and Poetry.

Photo 1 taken at 'Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920' exhibition Tate; photo 2 taken at 'Angelica Kauffman' exhibition Royal Academy of Arts 😍

1. Angelica Kauffman, 'Self-Portrait', c. 1770-75
2. Angelica Kauffman, 'Self-Portrait with Bust of Minerva', c. 1780-84

I'd never attended an auction preview before - even when living in Hong Kong where there are constant previews going on. So I finally decided to see the Christie's preview for artworks, jewelry and handbags currently in Singapore to be sold very soon at the Hong Kong auctions! 🖼️💍👜

Of course my favourites were the paintings (for the 20th and 21st century art day sales), and I share a few highlights here! Do take the chance to check them out at the lovely Arts House - it's showing only till tomorrow, 25th May! I should also keep an eye out to see how much these eventually sell for... 👀

1. Georgette Chen, 'Still Life with Star Fruit', c. 1946-50
2. René Magritte, 'L'invitation au voyage', 1944
3. Marc Chagall, 'Les mariés ou Les amoureux aux fleurs', 1959
4. Affandi, 'Self Portrait', 1970
5. Lee Man Fong, 'Three Geese', 1978
6. Cheong Soo Pieng, 'Figure on a Raft', 1961

It might be the first time I'm doing this, but I wanted to share some of my favourite things/places/experiences I've seen and loved this year in 2023! While I might remember this year later as the year I finished my thesis (which is now even more crazy to think about!!!), I'm so happy that this year I also managed to read more for leisure again, see quite a bit of artsy things, and went on a proper holiday for the first time in years! Taking time to be grateful and appreciative for the things and people around me. 🌟💞

1 - 18th century British clocks at Mind blown!!! 🕛
2 - Chasing sunsets at Avenue of Stars
3 - AI portrait at , loved my very own Renaissance portrait
4 - Best cutest purchase of the year!!!! x .hk
5 - Souvenirs from Hong Kong, does it matter that 3 out of my 4 souvenirs are from ??
6 - The .experience in SG was the best!
7 - Tulipmania at , loved seeing tulips for the first time and loved the Türkiye theme!!
8 - I fully embraced the year of Disney100 💯
9 - Revisiting Cloud Forest at !
10 - Revisiting the beautiful campus 😍