The new National Gallery in Singapore opens this week and last Friday I attended a pre-opening opening. I want to talk about that, but first I want to say something about what my old friend Brian Allen – who used to run the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art in London – has been saying. (see http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/nov/15/art-historians-fail-spot-differences-paintings-canaletto-bellotto)
He has long decried the way Art History in the UK has moved away from traditional art history to what was once called the “New Art History” with its emphasis on social history and theory. “There are increasingly few younger art historians who are comfortable at being asked to make attributional statements,” he says. “Rather than studying Canaletto, a student is more likely to focus on some aspect of the sociology of view painting in 18th-century Europe.” He also bemoans the way so few young art historians focus on older art: “If you look,” he continues, “at the number of doctoral theses being produced in pre-20th-century art, it’s diminishing very rapidly. People are opting to do what you might call easier subject areas. If you’re writing about contemporary art, you don’t really need a body of knowledge to the same extent.”
“Art historians are not confident about art any more,” Michael Daley, director of ArtWatch UK was quoted as saying in the same article. Which is a bit vague, but more worrying than not having enough people able to tell the difference between Canaletto and his one time pupil Bellotto. (I can, by the way!)
Well I am going to disagree with Brian there – or to some extent anyway – contemporary art is not an easier subject area – or at least not an easier subject area to be good in, though, sadly, it is easier to bluff and spout off in.
But he is touching a sensitive point: what if we replace the word “Connoiseurship” with “Quality”?
In a region where financial speculation in art is rife and art history is weak it is vital that people start standing up more and saying what they think is good and what is bad. Look through any Sotheby’s or Christie’s catalogue for Asian contemporary art – let alone the local auction houses like Borobudur or Masterpiece and you see good art mixed up with art that is specious, imitative, vulgar and downright bad. (What is it with Wallasse Ting, for example?)
It is also a problem that here, as we English will say, everyone is so fucking polite and averse to criticising. It is a big problem that most reviews in newspapers and magazines here are either life-style chitchat or regurgitated press releases. There is very little culture of critique. There’s lots of prize giving but no debate on why so and so deserves it.
And I want to add that social history and theory contribute to what we see as good, valid, interesting and important. They are complex questions but no one seems to eb trying to argue them through.
Which gets us to the National Gallery. An understanding of art history, of a canon indeed, helps us determine quality and importance. So, it is a pleasure to see a chronological survey of art in the region, with good examples of major artist’s work – how I wish it had been there seven years ago when I first came to Asia! It also gives, not incidentally, a real sense of the social history of Singapore and region.
It is rare that one is not allowed to take photographs in Asia but this is a case where one couldn’t, so I only have a few not very revealing snaps. It is very big pair of buildings! The old law courts and city hall converted. My sense was that the work was well displayed and lit. But I will have to go back a few times to really “get it”. How well does it link early art in region (about 1800-1945) to modernism (c. 1945-1998??? Choose your own date there) to the contemporary. The emphasis here is on the modern. As things develop and the gallery’s exact relationship (if any) to the Singapore Art Museum is established I hope we see more contemporary art there.
The opening speeches were short and to the point – I wish we could say that more often! And I liked that on one balcony there were works by the indomitable Thai photographer Manit Srwiwanichpoom that, as ever, played with the pathos of pomposity and vulgarity bumping together.
Anyway if you are in Singapore tomorrow come to CCA at 7.30 where I will be reading aloud this and some past Tuesdays. Sadly I will be on my own this time. Last month when I did this, as you can see from the snaps below, Ian Woo accompanied me on bass guitar. That was fun!
Best wishes
Tony