LIM H A R M O N Y KIM HAI
" I paint to remind society that I hope we could live in harmony" Lim Kim Hai
Harmony A solo exhibition by Lim Kim Hai
Curator's Foreword Curating "Harmony" has a very personal meaning for me. I have the pleasure to know Lim Kim Hai for quite some time now. Back in 2013, at what used to be called 69 Fine Art Gallery, he entrusted me to curate a solo exhibition to display some of his recent works which was entitled "Optical Optimism". It happened to be one of the very first exhibitions of the newly opened Gallery. At that time, I was baffled by his art, its expressivity and the consistency of his work - I value passion more than anything, and Lim surely is a passionate painter. But besides this professional enthusiasm we also connected on a more personal level. Both have we been living abroad, and more so in each others country - he lived in France for 17 years, and I just started a new period of my life in Malaysia after having lived in various countries such as Greece, Turkey, India, Switzerland. In this regard, we have experienced similar challenges and joys. Our respective journeys have taught us the value of foreign cultures and a strong sense of humanism. "Optical Optimism" was all about recent works of Lim ranging from the mid2000s to the early 2010s. It depicted this recent period of his artistic journey where Lim favors huge formats, plenty of oversized and joyful and blissful apples. I was fascinated that at this advanced point of his career he chose to embrace such a powerful, almost optical brutal art form, as it happens more often that aging artists tend to become more serene, less energetic or perhaps more discrete in their creative process.
"Harmony", which I am proud to present you today, has a quite different aim. Without calling it a retrospective, since it hasn't the systematic and exhaustive ambitions of this genre, "Harmony" aims at showing the amazing artistic journey of Mr Lim Kim Hai. In this sense, I like to consider it as a prequel to "Optical Optimism". We wanted to show the public where those amazing worlds of golden and green and red apple came from. We wanted to show the evolution from the quiet and sober interiors -his early realistic works- to the bursting colourful apple explosions, their joyful and strong, blissful and expressive of his hyperrealistic late work. We wanted to share a glimpse of this journey and some intermediate steps, involving those calm, majestic apples and their colorful and decorative, highly pictural backgrounds. As different as these paintings might be, one can't but notice that there is a Leitmotif in Lim Kim Hai's work as a painter which gives this evolution its laws and coherence. It is the problematic of Harmony that guides, in my humble opinion, Mr Lim Kim Hai's artistic quest. It can seem a quite common artistic problematic, maybe not as shared nowadays as it used to be as contemporary art turned its back towards beauty, harmony and all those ancient values to conquer and explore new aesthetic grounds. But Lim Kim Hai isn't a contemporary painter - he is a modern one, which does not mean at all that his art belongs to the past. On the contrary - in my eyes, his work is a direct response to the world as it goes, and seems to me to address nowadays chaotic and worrying global situations.
Lim Kim Hai's harmony used to be the Harmony of silence, of loneliness, the Harmony of the World past midnight or the one found in abandoned streets and in quiet indoor rooms. It is the Harmony of calm apples, laying atop of each other, in a 'Nature morte' setting, where their blissful colours and fascinating form enter in a visually pleasant and optical harmony. By maturing both in his life and in his art, those apples increased in size and number, they started being lifted from the ground, floating and falling like rain, they started growing as well. They got energetic, affirmative, claiming their own space and individuality. They started fighting but also assisting each other. They claimed more and more pictural space, they grow bigger and bigger and became so numerous they eventually crowded the whole paintings. Apples started as often in Art History : an occasion to paint, a convenient subject for the training of a young and passionate painter. They, quite literally, reached a cosmic, social an anthropological dimension. They were a pleasant detail of still-life paintings - now they are the sole subject, perspective, background, shape of the canvas. Their blissful explosion makes up for the whole colours the spectator gets to see. There is nothing else than apples, and yet we don't need to see anything more than apples. They are all that matters. Ironically the later works seem more energetic, bold and playful, more youthful one might say, as the early works of the master appear calmer in comparison. And yet, they are also more mature and, in one paradoxal sense, more appeasing than ever. How come that these late and cosmic visions soothe us even better than the silent ones?
I think that Lim Kim Hai approached the philosophical truth about harmony, and only in truth one can dwell and be at peace. The Harmony of Lim, as he evolved both artistically as a painter and existentially as a men, integrated the complexity of the world and the human condition. Harmony isn't something that already exists and subsists by itself. Harmony means nothing if it there is no Chaos to be vanquished, no mouvements to be brought together, no affirmation of unity transcending the conflictual multiplicity. Harmony to be true has to be stronger than Chaos. Lim Kim Hai's apples, which represents people and their passions, their individuality and their shared human condition, their complex social mouvements, cooperations and competitions, are united by the ingenious compositions, the colors, the similarities they share as a great picture. Unity in diversity, and harmony above adversity is what Lim Kim Hai's latest art is all about. It was a long and rich journey which brought him where he is and where he still works today, as his artistic journey hasn't quite reached its final destination, its perfect manifestation in an ultimate painting. (It never does, which is why artists live an endless life). It has often been said that Art has a calming effect, that its mission is to civilise and to appease people, to help them reach higher purpose in life, to teach them patience, joy and wisdom in its colorful ways. In Lim's case, this is certainly true. Thank you for this, Master Lim Kim Hai. , Patrice Vallette, curator & director of Vallette Gallery Constantin Beck co-curator & guest writer
About Lim Kim Hai In over 40 years of career, Lim Kim Hai has achieved a unique degree of mastery in depicting apples, merging academic realistic techniques and hypermodern imagination. These apples represent human beings, as different in sizes, shapes, colors and personalities as people can be. Brought together, those apples picture human society and the philosophical tension between unity and diversity, harmony and individuality, conflicting and collaborating desires stirring the world. The Vallette Gallery is proud to announce “Harmony”, an exhibition of Malaysian artist Lim Kim Hai featuring works ranging from the 80s to the last decade which aims at showing both the impressive evolution and radicalisation of his artistic language over time, and, nevertheless, the constant artistic and existential quest for harmony guiding the painter. Lim Kim Hai is a prominent Malaysian painter who has achieved international recognition His outstanding work, awarded on many occasions, has been exhibited on numerous important solo and retrospective shows throughout different countries such as France, Russia, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore and, of course, his native Malaysia. Born in 1950 in Selangor, Lim began his training at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore. In 1975, he left South East Asia for Paris to study modern and contemporary painting at lʼEcole Supérieure des Beaux Arts. Lim belongs to a group of « overseas » Chinese painters who merged Asian and European philosophy of art and aesthetics in order to invent their own artistic language. Having established himself quite well in France, he found resonance in the creative journeys of Renaissance artist Augustin Henckel, Post-Impressionist Cezanne, Abstract Expressionist De Kooning and Realist Impressionist Manet through his long visits to the Louvre and other local museums.
Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1980, Oil on canvas, 33,5x40,5cm
Alignement I, 1980, Oil on Canvas, 97x116cm
The Ligh Within, 1981, Oil on canvas, 33x27cm
Something to remember, 1983, Oil on canvas, 162x130cm
Colour Boxes II, 1989, Oil on canvas, 162x130cm
Motion and Stillness, 1989, Oil on canvas, 89x130cm
Harmony and peace, 2009, Oil on canvas,150x200cm,
Harmony & Peace, 2015, Oil on canvas, 200x300cm
Joyful living, 2018, Oil on canvas, 200x300cm
Jumping notes, 2016, Oil on canvas, 150x150cm
Lim Kim Hai adressing the public during the opening of the exhibition "Optical Optimism" at the Vallette Gallery (2013)
KIM HAI LIM 1950 Born in Selangor, Malaysia ART EDUCATION 1975-1980
Ecole nationale supérieure des Beau-Arts, Paris, France
1970-1972
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore
2020
Harmony, Vallette Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2018
The Art of Kim Hai Lim, The Ngee Ann Kongsi Galleries 1 & 2, Nayang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore
2017
Dialogue: Lim Kim Hai Solo Art Exhibition, Nanman Art Gallery, Singapore
2013
Optical Optimism, 69 Fine Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1992
The New Straits Times Press Bread, Malasya Malaysia Art House Gallery, Malaysia
1991
Yves Fay Gallery, Paris, France Galerie Akka Valmay, Paris, France
1990
Galerie Bernanos, Paris, FranceGalerie Akka Valmay, Paris, France
1988
Hotel MĂŠridien, Singapore National Museum, Singapore Valmay Gallery, Paris, France. SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2014
A collection of the Contemporary Chinese Malaysia Artists, Impress Studio, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Artists Art Fair: Malaysia
2013
Young Gallery, Malaysia
2008
Nayiang 70 Years After, A reunion of Artists in the Academy, NAFA Galleries 1,2 &3 Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore
2001
Group Pont Des Arts and Malysia artists exhibition, Galerie Bernanos, Paris
1999
Kim Hai Shih Wen Artist Studio, Malacca, Malaysia Art Case Galleries Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia
1998
NAFA 60" Anniversary Alumni Art Exhibition, Singapore
1997
NAFA Malaysia-Singapore Alumni Exchange Exhibition '97 Maybank Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1996
Asia Pacific Watercolour Painting Exhibition, National Taiwan Art Education Institute Taiwan
1995
Asian Watercolours '95, Tahiland Cultural Centre Bangkok, Thailand
1994
Asian Watercolours '94, Galerie Petronas Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1993
Tai Te Gallery, TaiwanAsian Watercolours '93, Nike museum, Indonesia Malaysian Watercolour Organisation, Galerie Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1992
Salon Figuration Critique, Paris, France Salon Figuration Critique, Paris, France
1991
Salon Figuration Critique, Santillana, Spain
1990
Salon Figuration Critique, Paris, France AWARDS
1987
Golden and Public Awards 52e Salon des Beaux-Arts, Enghien-les-bains
1986
Prix Henri Lehman - Peinture Award, Institute de France, Académie des Beaux-Arts
1984
Silver Award, Salon Internationale du Val d'or, France
1982
Golden Award, Salon des Artistes Français, Paris, France
Lim Kim Hai with His Excellency, Frédéric Laplanche, French Ambassador in Malaysia, at the opening of "Harmony" in the Vallette Gallery, February 2020.
Aknowledgments
We would like to thank :
Mr Lim Kim Hai for his great work and his long lasting trust in the Vallette Gallery. His Excellency Mr. FrĂŠdĂŠric Laplanche, French Ambassador in Malaysia, for his kind support and his inspiring speech at the opening. Mr. Patrice Vallette, the curator of "Harmony", for his relentless passion and commitment. And the Vallette Gallery team, Ms Clarisse Rotrou, Mr Constantin Beck, Ms Constance Courault, Ms Angela Tisner, as it is their consistent work which enabled this exhibition. The collectors, artists and friends of the Arts for their steady interest in our efforts and loyalty towards our Gallery.
About Vallette Gallery
Founded in 2013 under the name 69 Fine Arts Gallery, the Vallette Gallery represents a broad range of innovative artists - both Malaysian and foreigners - which are active in the fields of painting, sculpture, photography and artistic installation. Based in Kuala Lumpur, our intercultural Gallery aims at establishing long lasting and trusty relationships between artists, collectors and art lovers, both local and from abroad. Guided by our passion for artistic excellence, we aim at establishing a creative space, in which artists can meet and share their ideas. Prices for the paintings are given upon request. For all matters, including guided tours and private showings, please contact us directly. Contact: project@vallettegallery.com +60193012569 Adress: 14, Jalan Langgak Tunku, Taman tunku, Kuala Lumpur, 50480.