Lee Man Fong (; born November 14, 1913 – April 3, 1988) was a

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

born in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. His father, a merchant with ten children, brought him to

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, bor ...

. When his father died in 1930, Man Fong had to work hard to earn a living for his mother and siblings using his skill in painting ads and artwork. However, that was not enough for him. In 1932, he moved to

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital city, capital and list of Indonesian cities by population, largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coa ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

. The tension between nationalist groups such as Persagi (Persatuan Ahli-ahli Gambar Indonesia, or Association of Indonesian Draughtsmans) and Indische-Holland kunstkring community stimulated him. In 1942, Man Fong was jailed because of his opposition to Japanese colonialism in Indonesia. After six months in jail, Takahashi Masao helped him gain freedom. This Japanese officer was interested in his artistic potential. In 1946, President

Sukarno Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of ...

heard about him when he had his solo exhibition in Jakarta. Sukarno then knew that Man Fong was given a Malino scholarship from Van Mook, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

lieutenant-governor general. In Europe, many of his exhibitions were successful. He briefly returned to Indonesia, and went back to hold exhibitions from

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. In 1952 he returned to Jakarta. The visit from

and

Basuki Abdullah Fransiskus Xaverius Basuki Abdullah (born Muhammad Basuki Abdullah, January 25, 1915 – November 5, 1993) was an Indonesian painter and a convert to Roman Catholicism from Islam. His work is characterized as realism and has been exhibited i ...

, the official palace painter at that time, encouraged him to establish Yin Hua in 1955. Yin Hua was an organization of Chinese painters that had its office on Lokasari Street, Jakarta. Many art exhibitions were organised by Yin Hua. In 1956, Yin Hua was invited to hold exhibitions in China. The relationship between Sukarno and Man Fong improved. His beautiful and perfect works matched with Sukarno's taste. For him, Man Fong's art was an escape from revolutionary spirit. Sukarno didn't have any particular theme preference in art. Only ten percent of all his collections had a nationalist theme. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever," was his remark about his taste on art. Therefore, when Basuki Abdullah suggested to him to appoint Man Fong as the next presidential painter, Sukarno agreed to it without hesitance. Source: Kompas, June 1, 2001, an article by Agus Dermawan T.

"Style should not be casually borrowed from others. Even worse is the deliberate imitation of the style created by another artist. Those who pretend that another artist's style is his own have no shame. For any style to hold up, the artist - its true creator - has had to toil ceaselessly for years with repeated experimentation and reflection out of which the results in turn are subjected to successive reevaluations and corrections. " - Lee Man Fong, ''The Oil Paintings of Lee Man Fong: The Pioneer Artist of Indonesia and Singapore,'' Art Book Co., Ltd, p. 11

External links

*http://www.biotechnics.org/2lee_man_fong.html *http://www.geringerart.com/bios/fong.html

Bibliography

* H.K.Hoe, K.C. Low., et al. (2014), ''The Oil Paintings of Lee Man Fong: The Pioneer Artist of Indonesia and Singapore.'' Art Book Co., Ltd. 1913 births 1988 deaths Artists from Guangzhou Chinese emigrants to Indonesia Indonesian people of Chinese descent Indonesian Cantonese people 20th-century Indonesian painters {{China-artist-stub