Who was Kim Lim? Retrospective of Singapore-born British artist casts her in new light
National Gallery of Singapore exhibition recasts sculptor and printmaker Lim’s career. A contemporary of Henry Moore, she was long forgotten
In the mid-1960s, Singapore-born artist Kim Lim appeared on British television to speak about her monumental, arched-steel sculpture Day that was displayed in London’s Battersea Park alongside works by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Anthony Caro, some of the greatest names in 20th-century British art.
The petite 30-year-old spoke assertively. “For me, a piece of sculpture has to have a presence and I want it to be seen immediately as a whole.”
In many ways, this statement applies to Lim herself. As a member of an ethnic minority living in post-war London, she refused to be siloed by her gender or race. Instead, Lim demanded that she and her artistic practice be acknowledged in their entirety.
“She would say, ‘I’m not a woman artist or an Asian artist. I’m an artist,” recalls her son Alex Turnbull, who co-manages her estate. “It was very important for her work [to speak for itself] and for her to be judged based on that.”