On 21 March 2019, the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) announced the appointment of Dr Eugene Tan as Director, starting on 1 April. Eugene Tan is currently Director of National Gallery Singapore (NGS), a role which he will continue while being Director of SAM. The announcement comes at time when SAM is undergoing a major redevelopment, including the preservation of the buildings’ heritage architecture, blending the old and the new. Meanwhile, SAM’s exhibitions and events will continue at partner venues for the duration of the redevelopment.
Eugene Tan’s career in the visual arts began in the contemporary. Before joining NGS, he oversaw the development of the Gillman Barracks art district with the Singapore Economic Development Board. He was previously Director for Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art – Singapore, and Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore. He was also co-curator of the inaugural Singapore Biennale in 2006, and curator for the Singapore Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2005. In 2007, he co-authored the publication Contemporary Art in Singapore.
Under his leadership, NGS has led an ambitious exhibitions programme and spearheaded successful partnerships with international museums such as Tate, Centre Pompidou, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (MOMAT). With them, NGS organised major exhibitions, including “Latiff Mohidin: Pago Pago (1960-1969)” , which toured to Centre Pompidou, Paris, and Ilham Gallery, Kuala Lumpur as well as “Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia, 1960s–1990s”, which showed at MMCA and MOMAT.
Eugene Tan is also an accomplished curator, and has curated important exhibitions that highlighted the perspective of Southeast Asia in global art history, such as “Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond and Minimalism: Space. Light. Object.” His exhibitions programme also raised awareness of artistic forerunners and movements to Singapore publics, like “YAYOI KUSAMA: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow” and “Century of Light”, which placed Southeast Asian masters Raden Saleh and Juan Luna alongside Impressionist masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay. He is also on the Board of CIMAM (International Committee of Museums and Collections of Modern Art), Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp (MuHKA) and Mori Art Museum’s International Advisory Committee.
Quoted in the announcement press release, Dr Eugene Tan commented on his appointment:
SAM has an important and distinct role to play as the beacon of creativity and inspiration for our publics in Singapore and Southeast Asia, by leveraging on the power of contemporary art and demonstrating the possibilities that art and creativity holds for our societies today. I look forward to contributing to this exciting future for SAM to become a globally leading contemporary art museum for the 21st Century, to play a role in defining global discourses on the nature of art and its role in our societies, and to using my roles as Director of SAM and National Gallery Singapore to engage our publics and the arts community in Singapore in a more holistic way.
SAM is launching SAM Mini Mobile Museum on 3 April 2019, a travelling art exhibition held in partnership with the National Library Board, bringing contemporary art out to the Regional Libraries of Tampines, Woodlands and Jurong, as the museum buildings undergo renovations. The Singapore Biennale will start on 22 November 2019 and run until 22 March 2020 at various venues in Singapore.