Lee Boon Wang

Lee Boon Wang was a Chinese-born Singaporean oil painter. A realist painter, he specialized in landscape paintings and best-known for his riverside and seaside scenes. Apart from landscapes, he also depicted daily scenes and painted portraits. His early works have become documentations of Singapore’s history. He was born on 1 January 1934 in Guangdong, China. He emigrated to Singapore with his family as a child. 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. Boon Wang graduated from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1953. He began his career by teaching at his alma mater, and then worked in advertising for S. H. Benson and Leo Burnett Worldwide. By the 1970s, he became a full-time landscape painter. He painted many scenes by the river and the sea. Many of his paintings were acquired by the National Gallery Singapore. It was also exhibited at the Ngee Ann Cultural Centre and the Empress Place Museum Gallery. Boon Wang was a co-founder of the Equator Art Society, a left-leaning realist organization in the mid-1950s. He later joined the Singapore Watercolour Society. He was awarded the Singapore Distinction Art Award in 1982 and was the first Singaporean commissioned to paint the Royal Family of Brunei in 1989. He had a son and two daughters from his first marriage. He was then married to Helen Teo for four decades. Boon Wang underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2014 and relapsed with colon cancer in 2016. He died of a heart attack on 30 October 2016 at the St Andrew's Community Hospital in Singapore. He left behind many traces of his art and wisdom, as well as numerous students who continue his legacy.