Lin Hsin Hsin, Untitled (View From Above), 1985
Oil on canvas
88 x 128 cm, 88.5 x 128.5 x 2 cm (framed)
Condition: Very good
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Lin Hsin Hsin (Singaporean, b. 1952) is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist renowned for her pioneering work across diverse media, including early innovations in digital art for visual and performing arts. With a foundation in mathematics and computer science, she is also an accomplished poet and composer, finding a shared abstractness in art, mathematics, and music.
Her artistic journey began in childhood but took shape after high school, when she delved into oil painting under the guidance of Nanyang-style pioneer Cheong Soo Pieng (Singaporean, 1917–1983). Inspired by European masters like Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, and Joan Miró—who also explored the intersections of music and mathematics—Lin developed a unique approach to abstraction.
Her oil paintings from the 1970s to 1990s are marked by vibrant chromaticism and rhythmic compositions, reflecting philosophical meditations on the complexities of contemporary life in Singapore. Lin’s work stands as a significant contribution to Singapore’s post-independence arts landscape.
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"Lin radically alters the very nature of oil: she is not concerned with its opulence, density, body or tactile qualities. On the contrary, she suppresses such ostensive appeals for which oil is renown and for which it has been cultivated over the past five centuries. Lin brushes oil on to surfaces as washes and as finely modulated brush marks; she renders oil as as translucent membrane, through which light and textures percolate and radiate; Whereas artists customarily revel in and cultivate the substantial properties of oil, Lin transforms the medium into assuming insubstantial characteristics and conditions. Translucency and fluidity are the hallmarks of Lin's manipulation of oil; her pictures project delicacy pushed to the edge of self-effacement, and at times lean towards the borders of indeterminacy. The effects of these on space, time and body are considerable."
T K Sabapathy
BODIES AND NON-BODIES: NARRATIVITY IN LIN HSIN HSIN'S RECENT WORKS [1992]
(Photographed in February 2025)