Lee Boon Wang (1 January 1934 – 30 October 2016)[1] was a Chinese-born Singaporean landscape painter, best known for his riverside and seaside paintings. Many of his paintings are exhibited at the National Gallery Singapore.

Lee Boon Wang
Lee Boon Wang with his self-portrait
Born1 January 1934
Guangdong, China
Died30 October 2016(2016-10-30) (aged 82)
Singapore
Alma materNanyang Academy of Fine Arts
OccupationPainter
SpouseHelen Teo
Children1 son, 2 daughters
RelativesLee Boon Yang (brother)
Chua Mia Tee (brother-in-law)

Early life

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Lee Boon Wang was born on 1 January 1934 in Guangdong, China.[2][3][4] He emigrated to Singapore with his family as a child.[3][5] He had a brother, Lee Boon Yang, who became a businessman and politician, and a sister, Lee Boon Ngan, who married the painter Chua Mia Tee.[5][3]

Boon Wang graduated from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1953.[3]

Career

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Boon Wang began his career by teaching at his alma mater, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.[5] He subsequently worked in advertising,[5] first for S. H. Benson and later for Leo Burnett Worldwide.[4] By the 1970s, he became a full-time landscape painter.[5] He painted many scenes by the river and the sea.[3] Many of his paintings were acquired by the National Gallery Singapore.[3] It was also exhibited at the Ngee Ann Cultural Centre and the Empress Place Museum Gallery.[4]

Boon Wang was a co-founder of the Equator Art Society, a left-leaning realist organization in the mid-1950s.[3][5] He later joined the Singapore Watercolour Society.[3]

Personal life and death

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Boon Wang had a son and two daughters from his first marriage.[3] He was then married to Helen Teo for four decades.[5]

Boon Wang underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2014 and relapsed with colon cancer in 2016.[3] He died on 30 October 2016 at the St Andrew's Community Hospital in Singapore.[3]

References

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  1. ^ "Mr Lee Boon Wang". Heaven Address. Archived from the original on 24 June 2018.
  2. ^ Richard Lim (1990). Singapore artists speak. Vol. 1. C.H. Yeo. p. 59. ISBN 9789810018399.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Kam, Leong Weng (31 October 2016). "Painter Lee Boon Wang dies at 82 after battle with cancer". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 15 February 2019. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  4. ^ a b c "VISUAL ARTIST - LEE BOON WANG". Tanoto Foundation Centre for Southeast Asian Arts at NAFA. Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Archived from the original on 24 June 2018. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Kam, Leong Weng (10 May 2016). "Cancer-stricken artist Lee Boon Wang misses show opening". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 7 July 2019. Retrieved 6 July 2017.