Georgette Chen was a modernist painter whose still-lifes and portraits were the heart of the Nanyang art movement. She studied in Paris and New York and absorbed the lessons of European post-impressionism and married them with the colours, light and atmosphere of Southeast Asia. Her works, often of tropical fruits, flowers and women in domestic settings, show a quiet balance between Eastern sensibility and Western structure.

Her brushwork is meditative – precise and tender – she believes beauty is in the everyday. Through her subtle palette and devotion to form, she turned the ordinary into cultural identity and personal memory. As artist and teacher, Georgette Chen helped shape the visual language of modern Singapore and left us a body of work that is beautiful, disciplined and clear.