Artist Lee Boon Ngan gets her own show

While artist Chua Mia Tee was making a name for himself as Singapore's master of social realism, painting passionate anti-colonial tableaus, then portraits of post-independence leaders like Lee Kuan Yew, a woman sat beside him, painting her flowers quietly by the light at the window.

- Shawn Hoo

Chua's wife Lee Boon Ngan is better known as the subject of her husband's famous 1957 painting in the National Gallery Singapore's collection – in which she wears a severe expression, loose braids and a flower-embroidered blouse.

But Mrs Chua, who died in 2017, was also an artist and a new exhibition places her at the centre.

The Art Of Lee Boon Ngan, which opens to the public at The Private Museum (TPM) on July 10, is not the usual show around professional artists or cultural titans. Coinciding with SG60, the show talks as much about nation-building as it does art-making and home-making.

Dr Chua Yang, 57, who manages her mother's estate, says that while Chua became a full-time artist, Lee painted on the side while raising her two children. "She left her art and craft behind to make sure we were fed and cleaned – whatever we needed came first for her."

Lee did not have the luxury of time for art, unlike her husband who received the Cultural Medallion in 2015 – but she was talented and persistent, painting flowers from her garden between her children's meal times. Her 14 works on display might not match the grand sweep of Chua's paintings, but her dancing lady orchids and camellias flaunt an equal flair for light and shadow.