page_title: Chua Ek Kay
section_title: Death and tributes
hierarchical_section_title: Chua Ek Kay / Death and tributes
caption_attribution_description: English: Susie Lingham (moderator, standing), Cheo Chai-Hiang, Hong Sek Chern, T.K. Sabapathy and Joanna Lee (seated) at a roundtable session entitled Remembering Chua Ek Kay: Ink Painting and the Idea of the Contemporary in Seminar Room #02-08 of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) on 18 March 2008.
context_page_description: Chua Ek Kay was a Singaporean artist hailed as the "bridge between Asian and Western art" with a unique painting style using Chinese ink on paper that demonstrated an ingenious blend of traditional Chinese painting forms with Western art theories and techniques. Most of his works were themed of Chinatown street scenes, lotuses, and abstract works inspired by Australian aboriginal cave paintings.
context_section_description: On 8 February 2008, Chua died at the age of 61 after having battled nasal cancer since 2004.
  "With Chua's passing," said Edmund Cheng, the Chairman of the National Arts Council, "Singapore has lost a great artist and a towering talent... To his friends and fellow artists, Ek Kay was a man of few words, and was always respected for his quiet confidence and humility despite his outstanding international success. Ek Kay was an exemplary artist who had left us at his peak."
  On 18 March 2008, The Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts paid tribute to Chua with a roundtable session titled Remembering Chua Ek Kay: Ink Painting and the Idea of the Contemporary. Using Chua's works as the basis for discussion, the forum sought to engage the audience in a discussion on the meaning of contemporary art in Singapore. Guest speaker Joanna Lee, author of Chua Ek Kay: Singapore Street Scenes, Evoking Memories (2007), together with artists Cheo Chai-Hiang and Hong Sek Chern, touched on Chua's creations and the development of his ideas over the years.
  This was followed by a memorial service for Chua, on 17 May 2008, organised jointly by the Singapore Art Museum and Singapore Management University (SMU). The service marked the 100th day of the artist's death, with tributes delivered by Museum director Kwok Kian Chow, arts patron Koh Seow Chuan, the late artist's widow Mdm Yeo Yang Kwee and many other people whom Chua had worked with in his lifetime. Mdm Yeo also unveiled two untitled paintings at the service, and announced her donation of Chua's "representative collection" to the Art Museum.
caption: Roundtable participants (from left to right) Susie Lingham (moderator, standing), Cheo Chai-Hiang, Hong Sek Chern, T.K. Sabapathy and Joanna Lee.
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