Yong Mun Sen

Yong Mun Sen (10January 1896 30 September 1962 ) was a Malaysian artist and one of the founders of Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore, then Malaya. Born Yong Yen Lang in Kuching, Sarawak, he changed his name to Yong Mun Sen in 1922.

Early life Born in Kuching, Sarawak where his father ran a coconut estate, in 1901 Sen went to Dabu County in Meizhou City, Kwangtung (now Guangdong) Province in China for schooling in brush use and calligraphy and returned to Kuching in 1910. Sen always spoke of how seeing a Japanese artist painting with watercolors had made an indelible impression on him.

He is widely known as the Father of Malaysian Painting.

He also proposed to establish a fine arts school, now known as Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). Through an annual meeting hosted in 1937, the idea was subsequently shelved away due to the lack of funding. Tan See Siang helped with the funding of the institution and thus NAFA was then established in 1938, with Lim Hak Tai becoming NAFA's Founding Principal and Yong Mun Sen becoming one of the founders of the institution alongside his peers of SOCA.

Exhibitions

Yong Mun Sen in Nanyang, comprehensive retrospective exhibition at Ngee Ann Kong Si Galleries 1&2 in 11 February -7 May 2023