The Singapore Art Museum (
Abbreviation
An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...
: SAM) is an
art museum
An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. A ...
is located in the
Downtown Core
The Downtown Core is the historical and downtown centre of the city-state of Singapore and the main commercial area in Singapore excluding reclaimed lands with many integrated resorts such as the Marina Bay Sands, one of the most expensive build ...
district of
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
. It is the first fully dedicated contemporary visual arts museum in Singapore with one of the world’s most important public collections by local, Southeast and East Asian artists. It collaborates with international art museums to co-curate
contemporary art
Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...
exhibitions.
SAM presents art across multiple spaces such as
Tanjong Pagar
Tanjong Pagar ( alternatively spelled ''Tanjung Pagar'') is a historic district located within the Central Business District in Singapore, straddling the Outram Planning Area and the Downtown Core under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's urb ...
Distripark, its heritage buildings and other partner venues across Singapore. The heritage buildings are located at two adjacent sites. The main building, dating back to 1955 is the former Saint Joseph’s Institution on
Bras Basah Road
Bras Basah Road () is a one-way road in Singapore in the planning areas of Museum and Downtown Core. The road starts at the junction of Orchard Road and Handy Road, at the ERP gantry towards the Central Business District, and ends at the junc ...
; the second building known as the 'SAM at 8Q' was the former Catholic High School on Queen Street. The museum organised the
Singapore Biennale The Singapore Biennale is a large-scale biennial contemporary art exhibition in Singapore, serving as the country’s major platform for international dialogue in contemporary art. It seeks to present and reflect the vigour of artistic practices in ...
in 2011, 2013, 2016, 2019 and will continue to do so in 2022.
History
Officially opened on 20 January 1996, SAM is one of the first art museums with international-standard museum facilities and programmes in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
.
The museum, then known as a fine art museum, was born out of a project by the
National Museum
A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...
to set up a five-museum precinct in the city. The other four museums that make up the precinct are known as the
Singapore History Museum,
Asian Civilisations Museum
The Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) is an institution which forms a part of the four museums in Singapore, the other three being the Peranakan Museum at Old Tao Nan School, the National Museum of Singapore and the Singapore Art Museum.
It is ...
, People's Museum and the Children's Museum.
The Fine Arts Museum project began with the restoration of the
former St. Joseph's Institution building. At the same time, the appointment of artist and surgeon Earl Lu to head an 11-member Fine Arts Museum Board was announced on 18 July 1992, by the Minister of State (Information and the Arts and Education),
Ker Sin Tze. The museum board was tasked to acquire works of art by notable painters from Southeast Asia and East Asia, and by upcoming artists from these regions. Low Chuck Tiew, a retired banker and prominent art collector, served as museum adviser, along with Shirley Loo-Lim, Deputy Director of the National Museum of Singapore as vice-chairman of the board. Geh Min, Ho Kok Hoe, Lee Seng Tee, Arthur Lim,
T.K. Sabapathy, Sarkasi Said, Sum Yoke Kit, Wee Chwee Heng,
Singapore Polytechnic
Singapore Polytechnic (SP) is a post-secondary education institution and statutory board under the purview of the Ministry of Education in Singapore.
Established in 1954, the institution is the first and oldest polytechnic in Singapore and is ...
alumni, and Yap-Whang Whee Yong formed the rest of the museum board.
The restoration work on the then 140-year-old national monument took more than two years at a cost of S$30 million. It first opened its doors to the public as the Singapore Art Museum on 20 October 1995. Its first art installation was a S$90,000, -high
Swarovski crystal
Swarovski (, ) is an Austrian producer of glass based in Wattens, Austria, and has existed as a family-owned business since its founding in 1895 by Daniel Swarovski.
The company is split into three major industry areas: the Swarovski Crystal ...
chandelier at the museum main entrance. It weighs 325 kilograms and took over three months to make. The museum was officially opened by the Prime Minister of Singapore,
Goh Chok Tong
Goh Chok Tong (; born 20 May 1941) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1990 and 2004, and Secretary-General of the People's Action Party between 1992 and 2004. He was the Parliament of Singapore, ...
on 20 January 1996. In his opening speech he envisioned the new museum, along with the other four museums in the Arts and Heritage District and the Arts Centre, aiding Singapore in reprising its historic role as a centre of
entrepot trade
Re-exportation, also called entrepot trade, is a form of international trade in which a country exports goods which it previously imported without altering them. One such example could be when one member of a free trade agreement charges lower ...
for the arts, culture, civilisation and ideas to the people in the Asian region and the rest of the world.
In 2019, the museum closed for a second redevelopment that will preserve the heritage buildings’ architecture. The redevelopment will be completed in 2026.
In January 2022, SAM opened a new contemporary art space at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Spread across two floors, SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark houses two galleries, an F&B space and residency studios. Museum exhibitions and events continue at partner venues and community spaces.
Location and amenities
SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark is located in a historic port district, alongside other gallery and exhibition spaces such as
Gajah Gallery
Gajah Gallery is an art gallery in Singapore that hosts artwork related to the socio-cultural interests of Asia. It was established in 1995 by Jasdeep Sandhu and promotes Southeast Asian Contemporary Art with an emphasis on Indonesian Contemporary ...
and ArtSpace@Helutrans. It is of walking proximity to Chinatown, Duxton and Everton Park and accessible by public buses,
MRT
MRT may refer to:
Transport Rapid Transit Systems
* Mass Rapid Transit (disambiguation)
* MRT (Singapore) or Mass Rapid Transit, Singapore
* MRT (Bangkok) or Metropolitan Rapid Transit, Thailand
* Manila Metro Rail Transit System, Philippine ...
and cab services.
SAM’s heritage buildings are situated in the heart of Singapore's arts and culture district, located alongside Singapore's major performing arts and visual arts institutions: the
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA); (Standard Chinese: 南洋艺术学院; ms, Akademi Seni Halus Nanyang; ta, நன்யாங் அகாடமி ஆஃப் ஃபைன் ஆர்ட்ஸ்) is a publicly-funded post-secondary ar ...
,
LASALLE College of the Arts
LASALLE College of the Arts (informally LASALLE) is a publicly-funded post-secondary arts institution, planned to be a constituent college of the University of the Arts Singapore (UAS) by 2024 along with the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Sing ...
, the Stamford Arts Centre, the Selegie Arts Centre, Singapore Calligraphy Centre, YMS Arts Centre, Dance Ensemble Singapore, Action Theatre and
School of the Arts.
In addition to the main museum building, SAM maintains an annexe on 8 Queen Street,
SAM at 8Q, which also exhibits SAM's collection of contemporary art, as well as newly-commissioned, contemporary artworks. The two buildings are currently closed for redevelopment.
Collection and exhibitions
SAM's approach is to present works curated from the National Collection alongside changing exhibitions, to offer a well-rounded aesthetic experience of Asian contemporary art. From 2001, the museum began acquiring works and accepting donations from around the region, including regional contemporary artists like
Cheo Chai-Hiang,
Dinh Q. Lê,
Natee Utarit, Nge Lay,
Suzann Victor and
Titarubi.
The museum also regularly partners with other leading art institutions to co-curate and produce exhibitions, such as the collaboration with the
Yokohama Museum of Art
, founded in 1989, is located in the futuristic Minato Mirai 21 district of the Japanese city Yokohama, next to the Yokohama Landmark Tower.
The collections
The museum has works by many influential and well-known modern artists including Constant ...
for ''Still Moving: A Triple Bill on the Image'';
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
The is a contemporary art museum in Koto, Tokyo, Japan. The museum is located in Kiba Park. It was opened in 1995.
Collections
*''Marilyn Monroe'' by Andy Warhol (1967)
*''Girl with Hair Ribbon'' by Roy Lichtenstein (1965)
*''Honey-pop'' by To ...
for ''Trans-Cool TOKYO'' (highlighting works by Japanese artists such as
Yayoi Kusama
is a Japanese contemporary artist who works primarily in sculpture and installation, and is also active in painting, performance, video art, fashion, poetry, fiction, and other arts. Her work is based in conceptual art and shows some attributes ...
and
Yasumasa Morimura
Yasumasa Morimura (森村 泰昌, Morimura Yasumasa, born June 11, 1951) is a contemporary Japanese performance and appropriation artist whose work encompasses photography, film, and live performance. He is known for his reinterpretation of ...
); ''Video, An Art, A History'' with the
Pompidou Center
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
(
Bill Viola
Bill Viola ( , ; born 1951) is an American contemporary video artist whose artistic expression depends upon electronic, sound, and image technology in new media. His works focus on the ideas behind fundamental human experiences such as birth, d ...
,
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran ...
,
Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives near Galisteo, New Mexico.
Life and work ...
); and ''They Do Not Understand Each Other'' with Tai Kwun and National Museum of Art, Osaka.
The museum organises regular contemporary art exhibitions and events. For example, French artist
Stéphane Blanquet
Born in 1973, near Paris, France, multimedia artist Stéphane Blanquet is a prolific figure in the contemporary art scene since the end of the 1980s.
Biography
Contemporary art
Born in 1973, near Paris, France, multimedia artist Stéphane Bl ...
was invited, twice, to present installations. Once, for the Night Lights festival in 2012, with ''Distorted Forest'' and once for Art Gardens in 2013, with ''Glossy Dreams in Depth''. French artist
Emmanuel Guillaud presented an in-situ version of his installation ''Until the sun rises'' in 2011.
Since 2010, SAM started to focus on contemporary art practices from Southeast Asia. More recently, the museum presented ''Time Passes'' in 2020, an exhibition which showcased the works of 13 emerging Singaporean artists, and ''The Gift'' in 2021, an exhibition which featured artists from the region such as
Dolorosa Sinaga,
Ho Tzu Nyen
Ho Tzu Nyen (; born 1976) is a Singaporean contemporary artist and filmmaker whose works involve film, video, performance, and immersive multimedia installations. His work brings together fact and myth to mobilise different understandings of S ...
,
Korakrit Arunanondchai
Korakrit Arunanondchai is a video and multimedia artist originally from Bangkok who now splits his time between Brooklyn and Bangkok. He is best known for his 2017 installation, ''With history in a room filled with people with funny names 4'', whi ...
,
Salleh Japar
Salleh Japar (born 1962) is a Singaporean contemporary artist working across sculpture, installation and painting, with his work coming into prominence in late 1980s Singapore. Within Singapore's history of contemporary art, Salleh is known for h ...
and
Tang Da Wu
Tang Da Wu (, ; born 1943) is a Singaporean artist who works in a variety of media, including drawing, painting, sculpture, installation art and performance art. Educated at Birmingham Polytechnic and Goldsmiths' College, University of London, ...
, among others.
Censorship
In 2008, SAM hosted ARX 5 (Artists’ Regional Exchange) where Hong Kong artist and caricaturist
Zunzi
Wong Kei-kwan (, born 1955), better known by his pen name Zunzi (), is a political cartoonist living in Hong Kong. Zunzi has been called "the territory's most prominent political cartoonist"; he has depicted Jiang Zemin, Liu Xiaobo and Xi Jinping ...
's work, ''Lee's Garden'', was removed from the museum's walls by its staff. The work consisted of a caricature of Prime Minister
Goh Chok Tong
Goh Chok Tong (; born 20 May 1941) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1990 and 2004, and Secretary-General of the People's Action Party between 1992 and 2004. He was the Parliament of Singapore, ...
wielding pest-control gear, with the senior minister and former prime minister
Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew (16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), born Harry Lee Kuan Yew, often referred to by his initials LKY, was a Singaporean lawyer and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1959 and 1990, and Secretary-General o ...
patting him on the back. This censorship was committed without any consultation with or notification of the artist, and sparked off a diplomatic and media incident.
In late 2011, following a private preview, SAM removed Japanese-British artist
Simon Fujiwara
Simon Fujiwara (born 10 September 1982 in Harrow, United Kingdom) is a British/Japanese artist.
His works range from paintings and photographs to installations, film and sculptures. They are shown all around the world, for example in the Tate Mo ...
’s work, ''Welcome to the Hotel Munber''. The piece, which was part of an exhibition organised by the
National Arts Council in 2010, featured homoerotic content. Despite advisory notices put up by the museum and the
Singapore Biennale The Singapore Biennale is a large-scale biennial contemporary art exhibition in Singapore, serving as the country’s major platform for international dialogue in contemporary art. It seeks to present and reflect the vigour of artistic practices in ...
, the work was taken down without any consultation with or notification of the artist after pressure by conservative groups.
See also
*
National Gallery Singapore
ms, Galeri Kebangsaan Singapura ta, சிங்கப்பூர் தேசிய கலைக்கூடம்
, logo = National_Gallery_Singapore_logo.svg
, image = Interior_of_the_National_Gallery_Singapore.jpg
, caption = Interior of ...
Literature
* Singapore Biennale 2013: If the World Changed,
* Tomorrow, Today: Contemporary Art from the Singapore Art Museum (2009–2011),
* Are You Afraid of Contemporary Art? by Vincent Leow,
References
External links
Official WebsiteSingapore Art Museum at Google Cultural Institute
{{authority control
Art museums established in 1996
National museums of Singapore
Art museums and galleries in Singapore
Asian art museums in Singapore
Modern art museums
Contemporary art galleries in Asia
1996 establishments in Singapore