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SG60 and the visual arts: Artist Lee Boon Ngan, realist master Chua Mia Tee's wife, gets her own show

SG60 and the visual arts: Artist Lee Boon Ngan, realist master Chua Mia Tee's wife, gets her own show

Straits Times02-07-2025
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Dr Chua Yang admiring the artwork of her mother Chua Mia Tee in The Art Of Lee Boon Ngan at The Private Museum.
SINGAPORE – While artist Chua Mia Tee was making a name for himself as Singapore's master of social realism – painting passionate anti-colonial tableaus, then portraits of post-independence leaders like Lee Kuan Yew – a woman sat beside him, painting her flowers quietly by the light at the window.
Chua's wife Lee Boon Ngan is better known as the subject of her husband's famous 1957 painting in the National Gallery Singapore's collection – in which she wears a severe expression, loose braids and a flower-embroidered blouse.
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