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| Claes Oldenburg Profile Airflow, 1969 Cast polyurethane relief over two-color lithograph in aluminum frame © 1969 Claes Oldenburg Photo courtesy the Oldenburg van Bruggen Studio Singapore Art Museum collection |
The Singapore Tyler Print Institute was established in 2002 under the guidance of the groundbreaking American master printer Kenneth E. Tyler. While it had a difficult birth, with Tyler leaving abruptly shortly after relocating his NY printmaking facility in Singapore, the institute quickly established itself as a key center for experimental print making in Asia, reaching out to top Asian artists that have mostly produced extremely interesting works over the years.
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| Alan Shields |
The SPIT celebrates its 10th anniversary with a special exhibition “STPI 10 Years: Celebrating the Art of Collaboration” from 12 May – 30 June 2012, which presents a significant body of works tracing STPI’s legacy from Tyler's collaborations with Modern Art masters like Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, David Hockney and Claes Oldenburg, which are now part of the Singapore Art Museum collection, alongside new works several resident artists produced at the STPI.
For STPI regular visitors, the surprise is the quality of the works that are now held in the collection of SAM, which herited those when the government helped buy Tyler's NY printmaking facilities back in 2002. There are stunning coloful lithographs by Jasper Johns (well-worth the visit alone), along
with works by Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg..
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| Heman Chong |
There are also works by numerous international and Asian artists that had residences at the institute, often producing (though not always) unusual pieces that broke the boundaries of their usual practices.
Those include Heman Chong, Lin Tianmiao, Qiu Zhijie, Tabaimo and Thukral & Tagra.
All in all, a very interesting and varied exhibition well worth spending an hour there.