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THE
MANILA TIMES
Monday, November 17, 2003
Marjorie Chu : Living with art
By Dexter Osorio
A renowned collector shares some insights about Southeast Asian art in general
and Philippine art in particular.
SINGAPOREAN art collector and gallery owner, Marjorie Chu, was recently in town
to launch her book, titled Understanding Contemporary Southeast Asian Art.
It was launched together with an exhibit by Finale Gallery featuring works that
were included in the book.
"I've been collecting art for more than 30 years," says Chu. "Buying
one painting is like seeing a movie and then seeing the trailer of another.
Before you know it, you also want to see the next one..."
Chu started collecting contemporary Southeast Asian art since 1971, when she
opened her first gallery in Singapore. Considered the doyenne of Singaporean
art, Chu is a founding member of the Art Gallery Association of Singapore, a
Lecturer to Friends of the Singapore Art Museum, and External Lecturer at Temasek
Polytechnic in Singapore. She established the National Museum Shops in Singapore
and was the organizer of ARTSingapore 2002.
"During the 1970s, I realized that I am more than a Singaporean, I am a
Southeast Asian," she says. Chu then followed the socalled Singaporean
Pioneer Artists (Goh Beng Kwan, Khoo Sui Ho, Thomas Yeo, Anthony Poon and Choy
Weng Yang) and traveled to other Southeast Asian countries and began long friendships
with dealers in the region, such as Arturo Luz in the Philippines and Hendra
Hadiprana in Jakarta, who both served as her mentors.
Chu's current collection focuses on paintings and sculptures by contemporary
artists of the five original members of the Asean: Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
"I'm just someone who lives with art," says Chu. "And I just
make sure that I am always open to it, always curious, always analyzing, always
discovering. I keep all my senses open. I go to exhibitions, I talk to artists."
Chu admits that she has already lost track of how many works are in her collection.
She makes it clear, however, that collecting art has never been her main goal.
"I can enjoy without owning, and that is the proper attitude," she
says. "My collection is just a group of works that help me to understand
Southeast Asian art, and it has enabled me to write my book."
Among the Filipino artists featured in her book are Ang Kiu Kok, Manuel Baldemor,
Malang, Juvenal Sanso, Romulo Olazo and Danilo Dalena.
Her years of experience with Southeast Asian art have prompted her to document
her collection and to share her insights so that others may understand its scope
and meaning. In so doing, she discovered several common threads running through
Southeast Asian art. One of these commonalities is the influence of craft and
tradition. "We all have our religious feasts, our temples, the colors of
our textiles and our rice cakes. Like Norma Belleza's works, for example. You
don't see European works with colors like those," she says.
Chu points out that all Southeast Asians have been influenced by a foreign nation,
and this is reflected in our art. "We all had to fight for independence.
Look at Amorsolo, for example. The imagery is Filipino, but the colors are European.
It's only when Manansala came that things changed."
Southeast Asian is unique because it treats black and white as acceptable colors,
says Chu. "Europeans consider black as a non-color or as the mixture of
many colors. Southeast Asian, on the other hand, consider 'the many colors of
black.' We use black with many tones. It's the same with white. Romulo Olazo
uses white in his works, for example."
Asked if she has a fixed set of criteria for her collection, Chu smiled and
said, "If I can afford it, then I buy. I have no criteria, no definitions,
no boundaries. It just happens, like falling in love. The important thing is
to connect with what I like. It's like falling in love . . . you don't choose
it."
"But just like children, I have favorites. My favorites are Indonesia and
the Philippines, because they are most expressive. They both have the fundamentals
- art schools and training - and the environment - culture, traditions, drama.
. . . You Filipinos are different because of your Spanish background and because
of your religion. You are more passionate and you are more dramatic. Maybe because
of your musical inclination . . . you also sing, you dance, you compose . .
. you are more outgoing. Any emotion you express is more exaggerated, whether
it's fiesta or depression - it's all-out, more extreme."
Table of Contents | Preface to the Book | Press | Where to Buy