National Gallery Singapore (Intro)

 We had a learning journey. We went to the 

National Gallery Singapore.

I found some catchy interesting artworks there, and I want to share them with you.

River in the Primeval Forest. Johor

Basic information
  Artist: Eugen von Ransonnet
(b. 1838, Austria, d. 1926, Austria)

1869
Hand-colored lithograph on paper

Description 
  This artwork is about the forest which next by a river. It graphically shows the green plants in the forest, such as trees, and grass. There is a small boat on the river and there is a man inside the boat and rowing the boat. He looks lonely but he really enjoys the forest view and the fresh, clean air here.

Profile of artist
  He was the son of Privy Councilor Karl Freiherr Ransonnet von Villez, Vice-President of the Supreme Court of Auditors and Margarethe, daughter of Field Marshal Lieutenant Franz Ludwig Count of Bigot de Saint-Quentin. He started his studies at the age of eleven at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. From 1855 to 1858 he studied law in Vienna and entered in 1858 as a ministerial office in the Kuk Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This also began his diplomatic career. In his free time, his whole love was devoted to the natural sciences, photography, and painting, but above all to color lithography.
   
He published, among other things, travel from Cairo to Tor to the Coral Banks of the Red Sea (Vienna 1863), undersea landscape , several paintings painted on coated paper under a diving bell with the fauna and flora of coral reefs of the Indian Ocean (c. 1864/65), sketches of the Inhabitants, Animal Life and Vegetation ... of Ceylon , with 22 toned and four colored lithographs (Vienna, 1867, German: Braunschweig, 1868), sketches from Singapore and Johor (1868) as well as travel pictures from East India, Siam, China and Japan ( Graz 1912).

-From Wikipedia

Reasons
  1- The light green color makes me feel that I am close to the natural and it give my heart a clean wash.
  2- The lonely boat moves my heart. It is in this deep forest alone. It lets me feel when lonely cover you, you can find a place full of love and peace to have a rest and keep away from our busy stressful life.

View of Singapore from the Governor's Residence

Basic information
Artist unknown
c. 1870

Description  
  This artwork shows us a beautiful evening in Singapore. The pink cloud looks like a sweet marshmallow, it shows the pretty clean sky of Singapore. The coconut trees show us that Singapore is a typical intertropical country.

Reasons
  1- It is really beautiful that it catches my eyes.
  2- This artwork shows the real view of this country.

Dancing Mutants

Basic Introduction of the artwork

Hernando R Ocampo

(b.1911, Philippines; d. 1978, Philippines)

1965

Oil on canvas

- Ocampo was a leading member of Philippine Neo-realists, who broke away from idealized depictions of their country after World War II. In Dancing Mutants, the artist reacts to the plausible horrors of the atomic bomb. With shapely rhythms of reds and greens, the work is reminiscent of Philippine flora and fauna which influenced his distinctive abstract style. The flattened perspective draws attention to and complements the harmony of forms and colours.

Describetion of this artwork
  This artwork is really abstract. The artist use color and simple shape to express mutant plants and animals. The theme of this artwork is a little bit dark


Profile of the artist
  Hernando Ruiz Ocampo was a leading radical modernist artist in the Philippines. He was a member of the Saturday Group of artists (also known as the Taza de Oro Group), and was one of the pre-war Thirteen Moderns, a group of modernist artists founded by Victorio C. Edades in 1938. Famously known for his triumvirate of with neo-realists Vicente S. Manansala and Cesar Legaspi, his works reflected the harsh realities of his country after the Second World War. However, many of his works depicted lush sceneries and the beautiful Philippine landscapes through his skillful use of fierce and bold colors.

  Ocampo was born in Santa Cruz, Manila, but later transferred to #61 Dimasalang St., Caloocan. His parents were Emilio Ocampo y Saltiero and Delfina Ruiz y Santo. He originally studied law, commerce and creative writing, and worked as a writer before he taught himself the visual arts. During his career as a writer, he was one of the organizers of Veronicans, a young group of progressive and prolific writers. He worked in various periodicals such as Taliba newspaper and Manila Sunday Chronicle magazine. He also worked as a scriptwriter and director for television, and produced and directed for the Filipino Players Guild.


-From Wikipedia

Reasons
  1- It is beautiful and mysterious. I can not understand it at first, but after i saw the introduction of this artwork, I got shocked. This artwork has a very deep meaning. It express the cruel war and the nuclear weapons. It stress peace and love from the opposite side. It moved my heart extremly.
  2-