SAM receives donation of 113 artworks worth S$66m
Posted: 03 September 2008 1050 hrs

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SINGAPORE: Internationally renowned artist Wu Guanzhong has donated 113 artworks worth an estimated S$66 million to the Singapore Art Museum (SAM).

According to a joint statement by the National Heritage Board and the Singapore Art Museum on Wednesday, Wu's gift is the highest in donation value that has been made to any museum in Singapore to date.

The donation agreement was signed in Beijing on Tuesday, and followed a similar donation of 66 artworks made to the Shanghai Art Museum by the artist earlier this year.

SAM has proposed to collaborate with the Shanghai Art Museum on a retrospective exhibition of Wu's works.

According to Director of SAM, Kwok Kian Chow, the museum will exhibit Wu's works, which "truly epitomises Asian aesthetic values", in early 2009.

Kwok said: "Wu Guanzhong's art practice displays his serious consideration of both formalism and the social grounding of art.

"This makes his work different from the Western value of 'art for art's sake', where art becomes a dimension of existence separate from the reality of life."

This is not the first time Wu has donated his art pieces to Singapore. The artist had donated a piece entitled "Roots" to the city-state back in 1988.

Wu said he entrusts his works to SAM as he "trusted the institution in the continued research and exhibitions of the works to make them relevant to the future".

89-year-old Wu is a leading Chinese painter, art educator and essayist who received much recognition in the early 1980s. He has an artistic style that balances formal beauty and the receptivity of the masses.

- CNA/yb