Born in Singapore in 1919, Yeo Hwee Bin's work is inevitably linked to the history of Singapore and Malaysia. Yeo as an artist, a teacher and a supporter of the development of local culture, together with his contemporaries form a unique chapter in the development of Singaporean and Asian contemporary art.
Starting with the Paris-born influences of the returning Shanghai teachers of the 1930s, Hwee Bin and his contemporaries spread the word of modernism in Asia and in hindsight, as an artist he plays a significant role in the emergence of modernism in Southeast Asia and Singapore. It was from the work of Hwee Bin and others that post-war Asian culture began the examination of its own expression which is only now reaching its maturity.
The present catalogue was published in conjunction with Yeo's solo exhibition at Earl Lu Gallery in Singapore in the year 2000. Essays on Yeo's art written by T.K. Sabapathy and Huangfu Binghui are featured here.