Walked past a gallery and paid a visit. Bumped into an exhibition on Asian artists in Paris between the two world wars, with a focus on Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese artists.
The first image I saw in that exhibition astonished me. It was a reproduction of a 1930s photo of the renowned Singaporean painter Georgette Chen standing in front of a portrait of her husband Eugene Chen, which in turn was created by French artist Charles Alexandre Picart Le Doux.
I knew very little about Georgette Chen, but I once translated a biography of her husband Eugene Chen, arguably “China’s most important diplomat in the 1920s” according to Wikipedia.
Georgette Chen and Eugene Chen married in 1930. At the time, she was 24 and already a famous artist. After Eugene Chen died in 1944, Georgette Chen spent her most artistically significant years in Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia and Singapore.
I am glad that I came to know Georgette Chen as a brilliant artist who had made a significant contribution to the development of modern art and visual art education in Singapore. Yes, she was also Eugene Chen’s wife, but she deserves recognition as her own person.
Image: Georgette Chen’s self portrait, about 1946, from Wikipedia.
(Day 43 #WarmWinterRead #WWR25 via @librarieschangelives)
Voices under the Sun 陽光下的聲音 