Opening Ceremony : 4 March 2009, 10.30am
To pay tribute to the Academy’s founding principal, Mr Lim Hak Tai, NAFA has commissioned his son, Mr Lim Yew Kuan to produce a bronze sculpture of him which will be unveiled on Wed, 4 Mar by Dr Lee Boon Yang, Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts. The ceremony will also take place in conjunction with the renaming of NAFA Gallery 3 to ‘Lim Hak Tai Gallery’ and the official opening of the “Lim Hak Tai: Quintessential Nanyang” exhibition. The sculpture is located at NAFA Campus 1 at the doorstep of the ‘Lim Hak Tai Gallery’. NAFA’s 70th anniversary celebration will culminate in this commemorative programme of 4 Mar, the finale of a series of festivities that kicked off in March/April 2008.
The exhibition will showcase over 50 artworks of oil, acrylic and Chinese ink, by Mr Lim Hak Tai (1893-1963), that have been assembled from both NAFA’s collection, as well as a much appreciated loan from Mr Lim Yew Kuan especially for this event. A publication on Lim Hak Tai’s works and this show will also be produced. Mr Lim Yew Kuan was NAFA Principal and taught at the academy from 1964 to 1994.
In his foreword in the exhibition publication, Mr Choo Thiam Siew, NAFA President said: “Many individuals have contributed to the founding, establishment and progress of NAFA. Among them, we are proud to commemorate the key role played by the late founding principal, Mr Lim Hak Tai. To recognise his achievements is to remember the origin and history of this institution, this academy.”
“As an artist, he embraced the styles and techniques of both the East and West, and advocated the development of the regional ‘Nanyang Style’ – this is demonstrated in the works featured in the show. As an educator, his faith and dedication towards art education exemplified the importance of how artistic knowledge must cultivate not only the self but society as a whole.”
Born in Xiamen, Fujian Province, China in May 1893, Lim Hak Tai graduated from the Provincial Art Teacher's Training College in Fuzhou, China in 1915. He taught at the Siming High School and Jimei Teachers Training College before co-founding the Xiamen Academy of Fine Arts in 1923. (Please refer to Annex A for milestones of the life of Lim Hak Tai.) In 1936, he accepted an invitation to teach in Singapore at The Chinese High School. In 1938, together with a group of businessmen and artists, Lim established Singapore’s first art academy, NAFA or Nanyang Fine Arts College as it was then known. 14 students commenced lessons on 10th March 1938 in western arts, sculpture and applied arts with just three teachers at the college’s first location at Lorong 167 Geylang, a two-storey old bungalow just opposite the then Gay World.
In recognition of his contributions to Singapore’s art education in its early years, Lim was conferred with the Meritorious Award (Pingat Jasa Gemilang) on 3 June 1962. He was the first artist to be conferred the award by the Singapore Government. Lim passed away in 1963 at the age of 73.
In her exhibition essay, Bridget Tracy Tan, Director of Art & Corporate Knowledge, provides us with glimpses into Lim’s works: “The combination of both Western oil painting of the academic stream and Chinese ink painting of the scholarly traditions reveal how Lim translated the very notion of newness, rebirth, creating plausible, relevant art in Nanyang. To recognise art’s place is not simply an homage to either polarity of Western imperialism or Chinese doctrines that may have proliferated a thousand and more years in civilisation. It is to understand that the spirit of man thrives on the beauty and aesthetic he finds in living life with great joy and discovery, ennobling his society to bring greater depth and harmony to all aspects of living and the community.”
