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Lee Boon Wang

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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)

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.

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.