Cultural Diversity In Art

Introduction Art has always been a part of the complex structure of the world we live in and existed in every culture. However, the world of art that most of us have come to understand has very much been dominated by the Western perspective. It is only in recent centuries that people have gained greater awareness of the cultural diversity in art due to the advancement of mass media and globalisation. This new cultural phenomena can be observed in what Fernando Ortiz, a South American scholar, termed as transculturalism, meaning the integration of two different cultures. Another scholar, Donald Cuccioletta, further argued that “one’s identity is not singular but multiple” in transculturalism. And Nanyang Style of arts is an example of In the

Tan Swie Hian incorporated western culture into the traditional Chinese techniques which are breaking away from the traditions, going beyond the boundaries. The word “contemporary” often used to describe art movement inspired by Jeff Koons, Banksy, and Keith Haring, that is gearing towards the concepts rather than the appearance of the artworks.. Therefore, the contemporary art of Tan Swie Hian demonstrates the influence of transculturalism to a large extent. The transcultural approach and elements allow his work to be unique and expressive.

Consequently, today's Art has changed as artists are exposed to various backgrounds, cultural influences, and Tan Swie Hian is one of them. Art today is no longer mono-cultural, diversity is visible and it's gaining a lot of attention. This radical change in Tan’s works disintegrates the homogeneity of Chinese Arts and Western Arts.

This essay will be an insight into Tan’s Life, Education, and Achievements in his career and an investigation on how his cultural aspects impacted his artwork and his style. Simultaneously, I will use Tan’s various artworks (Zen Mind is the Mountain After Rain, Charlie Chaplin, Portrait of Bada Shanren, When the Moon is Orbed, Minotaur - Picasso) to show how he demonstrates the influence of transculturalism in his art

This fusion of Western modernist concepts with the Eastern traditional techniques form an unique art style is also known as the Nanyang style of art in the Singapore context. The earliest record of Nanyang style in art were Bali paintings executed by Chinese artists, making its mark in Southeast Asia’s art history. Just as the name suggests, Nanyang style took place in “Nanyang” (Southeast Asia), emerging in the early 1930s and started to decline in the 1970s. The constant element that characterise the Nanyang style is the uniqueness in the synthesis of Chinese and Western art traditions in the arts. Thus, the Nanyang style of art applies to Tan Swie Hian as most of his works are his artistic expression, and most importantly using Chinese forms and techniques to apply with the different cultures.

THE NANYANG STYLE IN ART
Nanyang art is often defined as art from the Nanyang region or art from the Chinese diasporas. The “Nanyang Style” was established by a group of Chinese immigrant artists during the early 1940s, who left China to settle in Singapore brought along the knowledge and tradition of Chinese traditional art from China.
There are various interpretation of “Nanyang Style”, the term was coined by historians Redza Piyadasa and T. K. Sabapathy in 1979
It is the assimilation of different cultures to produce their our own identity