HONOURS/AWARDS

1970 | Public Service Star by the Singapore Government.

1996 | Service Medal by the Singapore Government

• Further, to commemorate the 100th year of Liu Kang’s birth, the National Art Gallery, Singapore, together with the Global Chinese Arts & Culture Society and Lianhe Zaobao held a forum titled “Liu Kang: Tropical Vanguard” on Saturday, 2 April 2011.

• Liu Kang is a founding member of the Singapore Art Society and credited as one of the artists who established the Nanyang Art Style.

• He spent his early years in Malaysia, studied art in Shanghai and Paris, and taught art in Shanghai during the 1930s.

• Liu Kang came to Singapore in 1942 and was credited with numerous contributions to the local arts scene there.

• He is famous for his Balinese-themed paintings, and strongly influenced by Chinese artist and art teacher Liu Haisu (1896–1994).

• He admired, and often appropriated the styles of French-based modernist painters such as Cézanne, van Gogh and Matisse.

• In 1952, Liu Kang, Chen Chong Swee, Chen Wen Hsi and Cheong Soo Pieng went on their historic field trip to Bali in search of a visual expression that was Southeast Asian. He drew much inspiration from the trip, from which he drew upon for his later works. His artwork, spanning from 1935 to 1997, remain a testament of his contributions to Singapore art.

EDUCATION

1928 | Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris

AUCTIONS

1994 Mar | Christie’s Singapore