Introduction to Fan Chang Tien's Bamboo & Orchids (2024)

Singapore pioneer ink artist Fan Chang Tien is most famed for his paintings of Bamboo and Orchid. During his lifetime, he was lauded as the ‘king of Bamboo’ in the Chinese art circle.
Watch this video narrated by Fan Chang Tien's daughter, Mrs. Teresa Yao to learn more.
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Fan Chang Tien 范昌乾 (1907, Jieyang, China - 1987, Singapore) graduated from the Xinhua Academy of Fine Arts and the Changming Art Academy, both in Shanghai, under the tutelage of Shanghai School (haipai 海派) masters such as Wang Geyi, Wang Zhen (Yiting), Pan Tianshou, and Zhu Wenyun. This allowed Fan to draw a direct lineage to the great haipai master Wu Changshuo, who modernised literati ink paintings for the cosmopolitan inhabitants of Shanghai.
Fan migrated to Bangkok, Thailand to teach in 1947, then to Singapore in 1956, with the Chinese Civil War preventing his return to China. Establishing himself in a studio in Balestier Road, Fan taught ink painting free of charge. Many of his students were involved in the Hwa Han Art Society, established in 1973 with Fan as head advisor.
Being part of the Teochew intellectual community led Fan to emphasise the literati aspects of the haipai tradition, most importantly in the assemblage of meanings provided within a piece of artwork through the four components of poetry, calligraphy, painting, and seal-carving. In particular, his self-composed poems, making full use of the metaphorical meanings of flora and fauna entrenched in Chinese literary culture, set him apart from other ink painters in Singapore. It is also within this textuality that Fan made sense of his Nanyang environs.
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For more information, check out the links provided below:
artcommune gallery's Website: www.artcommune.com.sg
Artist's Profile Page: www.artcommune.com.sg/fan-cha...
The gallery thanks Studio W for the production of this video.
© 2024 Teresa Yao. All Rights Reserved.
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