Georgette Chen (1906-1993) gained renown as a 20th century Singaporean painter whose sensuous and remarkable practice combined Asian subjects with Western styles and techniques. Her approach would go on to influence generations of Southeast Asian artists through Chen’s role as the first female educator at Singapore’s Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Chen’s practice made particularly innovative use of the still life genre, drawing on Chinese, Southeast Asian and Western motifs and influences that mirrored her fascinating peripatetic life between Mainland China and Paris, as well as her love for her adopted homeland of Singapore in later life.

Coconuts and Chilies (1973) showcases Chen’s rightful place as visionary heir to still life masters such as the French Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne and Vincent Van Gogh. Importantly, the artist selected this work as the back-cover image of the publication that accompanied her retrospective in 1985 at the National Museum Art Gallery, Singapore. Thus, highlighting the significance Coconuts and Chilies holds within the artist’s illustrious career.

The early 1950s brought Chen to Malaya, a tropical paradise. There was a marked shift in her color palette and style, especially in her still life paintings. She started to use a brighter, more saturated palette, reflecting the tropical environs of her surroundings. Her discoveries of local fruits and vegetation inspired her to explore new forms and perspectives in her work. She took her time to observe and arrange these subjects, the results were dynamic compositions that accentuated symbolism and encapsulated the culture of the Southeast Asian region.

Coconuts and Chilies (1973) composes not only of fruits of a tropical nature, Chen also selects everyday staples of Malayan and Southeast Asian cuisine. Chen carefully places a variety of coconuts, stalks of spring onions, garlic, and chilies on a crumbled piece of paper. Against a subtle pinkish brown background, Chen seems to orchestrate the beginnings of a wondrous meal on the wooden table - a recipe of her own, in the form of a painting. Employing multiple perspectives and angles, the composition appears full and dynamic.

Large bright red chilies, used to add spiciness and heat to food, lie in a small basket, tilted towards the viewer. Chilies also represents something “hot”, popular and sought-after in society. The long elegant green leaves of the spring onions weave through the composition, their purple bulb ends strewn on the table alongside other red chili peppers. Spring onions in Mandarin sounds like the word for “smart”, thus symbolizes intelligence, wit, and also, continuous growth and good luck. On the other hand, garlic symbolizes brilliant calculation. There is a motif of duality within the work, as seen by the two garlic cloves, two brown coconuts in the baskets, pair of open halves of a coconut, that perhaps highlight the symbolism of coconuts as emblems of togetherness.

The subject of coconuts is especially rare within Georgette Chen’s oeuvre. According to the documented works from the artist’s 1985 retrospective, only two other still life compositions featured coconuts, and none to this level of attention. The fruit carries multiple meanings from difficult cultures and exemplify Chen’s ability to tie in multifarious references within her work. Coconuts translate to yezi (椰子) in Chinese which also sounds like “grandfather and grandson”, and thus symbolizes togetherness, intimacy and unity. In Chinese culture, coconuts are often presented at weddings to wish the couple and the uniting families eternal happiness through the marital bond. Coconuts are also used in rituals in Indian culture, as a symbol of good luck and prosperity or to ward off negativity.

Famously, coconuts are an integral ingredient in Southeast Asian cooking – the milk is often used in curries, while coconut water is a source of hydration in the tropical heat. The viewer may recall Chen’s landscape paintings of tropical beaches lined with coconut trees or local kampong scenes where coconut trees provide shade to her subjects. In Coconuts and Chilies (1973) Chen chooses different varieties of coconut and even explores the different stages in which they develop. The two varieties of bright green and orange coconut placed diagonally opposite, are not completely ripened. Whereas brown husk coconuts, displayed in a basket and cut open in half are fully mature. Chen provides complex textural contrasts within the work, the hairy, hardy, outer husks of the coconuts in the rattan basket contrast with the smooth, pearlescent, white flesh of the halved fruits.

Encountering any work by Chen is fascinating as much as it is a profoundly rare, as most of her works are in museum collections. Living through four wars – two Chinese Revolutions of 1911 and 1949, World War I and World War II, coupled with living in different countries throughout her life truly fueled her dedication as an artist.

張荔英（1906-1993）是二十世紀的著名新加坡畫家之一，憑借其感性的非凡筆觸，在作品中巧妙地融合亞洲的主題和西方的風格和技巧。作為新加坡南洋藝術學院首位女教育家，她的藝術理念影響了一代又一代的東南亞藝術家，歷久不衰。張荔英的畫技在靜物寫生中尤顯創新，她借鑒了中國、東南亞和西方世界的藝術語言，並在畫作中反映她遊走中國大陸和巴黎的精彩人生歷程，以及她對晚年定居的第二故鄉——新加坡的鐘愛。

張荔英的繪畫風格師承法國後印象派畫家保羅・塞尚和文森・梵谷等靜物畫大師，在《椰子和辣椒》（1973年作）可見一斑。她選擇了此作為她 1985 年新加坡國家美術館回顧展的展覽出版物封底圖片，可見《椰子和辣椒》在藝術家輝煌的藝術生涯裡，地位顯赫。

張荔英在1950年代初來到馬來半島，這片熱帶天堂改變了其用色和風格，尤其是靜物寫生。她開始用更明亮飽和的色彩，描繪周遭的熱帶環境。她發現了當地水果和植物後，以這些靜物作爲靈感源泉，啓發她在作品中探索嶄新的可能性和觀點。經過對靜物一番耐心觀察，研究擺位，張荔英創造出充滿活力的構圖，帶有強烈象徵意義之餘，亦與東南亞地區的文化相互呼應。

《椰子和辣椒》（1973年作）中不止有熱帶水果，亦有馬來半島和東南亞餐桌上的常見食物。張荔英將椰子、蔥、大蒜和辣椒小心擺放在一張碎紙上。在淡淡的粉棕色背景下，畫家仿佛展示出自己的食譜，在木桌上精心準備了一頓美味盛宴——以饌入畫。她採用多重透視和多角度構圖，令畫作整體佈局變得豐富鮮活起來。又大又紅的辣椒被安放在向觀者傾斜的小籃子裡，它們為食物增添香辛和辣度之餘，同時象徵著人們的社交地位，並有熱門和趨之若鶩之意。修長而優雅的綠色蔥葉貫穿構圖，紫色球莖散落在桌子上，旁邊還有幾根紅辣椒。蔥通常象徵著「聰」明和智慧，蒜則代表精明計「算」。作品中反復強調二元性，比如兩瓣大蒜、籃子裡的兩個棕色椰子、一對打開的椰子，或許是在強調椰子寓意團結的象徵意義。

椰子此物在張荔英的作品中尤其罕見。根據藝術家 1985 年回顧展的作品記錄所記載，她只有在另外兩幅靜物作品裡畫過椰子，而且都不及在此作般描繪得如此仔細。椰子在各地文化象徵著不同意思，彰顯出張荔英擅長於揉合不同文化的藝術元素。椰子的中文發音類似「爺子」，因此有團結、親密和統一的寓意。椰子常見於中式婚宴上，用以祝福一對新人幸福美滿，兩家和諧結合。椰子在印度文化亦佔一席位，象徵著好運與繁榮，或用以抵擋厄運，在各種儀式典禮上都會用到。

眾所周知，椰子是東南亞飲食文化中不可或缺的食材——椰奶常被用來煮咖喱，而椰子水則是熱帶炎炎下之解渴良方。觀者或會想起張荔英風景畫筆下的那些椰子樹，在熱帶海灘上迎風搖曳，或耸立在小村莊裡，讓畫中人在樹下乘涼。她在《椰子和辣椒》（1973年作）繪畫了幾個品種相異且熟度不一的椰子：對角那兩顆鮮綠色和橙色的椰子依然半生不熟，而在籃子中被切成兩半的棕殼椰子則已熟透。它的外殼堅硬而毛糙，與半切椰子如珍珠般光滑的果肉形成複雜對比，豐富了畫作的質感層次。

張荔英的每幅畫作都令人留下深刻印象，為並之著迷。她的大部分作品都被博物館收藏，在市場上十分罕見。她經歷過1911年和1949年兩次中國革命，以及第一和第二次世界大戰，又曾在不同國家生活。這些歲月鍛鍊了藝術家的意志，給予她源源不絕的養分，一生專心致志為藝術貢獻。