About the Artist

Lee Boon Wang (1934 - 2016) was one of Singapore’s foremost oil painters. He graduated in 1953 from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and because of his excellent performance as a student he was invited by the principal, the late Mr. Lim Hak Tai, to teach at the academy. Thus he lectured in the Academy for two years. Soon after, he entered the lucrative commercial art business and rapidly rose to become Art Director of a multi-national advertising company. However his love for fine art and his burning desire to perfect his technique drove him to leave his job in 1973 for that of a freelance artist. He then devoted his time to oil painting. Not only was he adept in landscapes and scenes of everyday life, but equally brilliant in portraiture. Boon Wang also worked with watercolour and sketch-drawing. But whichever medium he chose, he held fast to the realistic doctrine in art.

Boon Wang’s public distinctions included winning the Singapore Creative Art Award (1980) and the Singapore Distinction Art Award (1982). He was one of the artists whose work was chosen to represent Singapore in Moscow in 1978. In 1989 he traveled to the United States, where he exhibited his works at the New York Art Expo and also participated in the 1st SIN-BRU Art Exhibition in Brunei, where he became the first Singapore Artist Commissioned to paint the Royal Family. He was also commissioned by the Singapore Turf Club in 1989 to do a series of 12 oil paintings on horses. Again in 1989 and also 1990 he was commissioned by C. K. Tang to paint a series of oils on the history of C. K. Tang and Asean Scenery for their private collections.