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ART ASIA
Have your cake and art it
Combine afternoon tea with an art tour of the St. Regis Singapore
Of the voluptuous black sculptures lurking within the five-star St. Regis Singapore, it is Fernando Botero’s smooth and seemingly inflated The Dancing Nude Couple (2005) that most impressed my group as we toured the hotel’s works of art. Adjacent, aptly, to the mezzanine-level ballroom, the plump piece is a good example of the South American artist’s voluminous and exaggerated figures, or so our guide, Megan, told us. Though surely no one can pass by the St. Regis façade on Tanglin Road and fail to notice Li Chen’s Dragon – Riding Bodhisattva.
A hotel art tour may sound underwhelming, but not when the hotel houses one of the most eclectic ‘private’ art collections in South-East Asia, with more than 90 original artworks, including pieces by Picasso, Botero and Miró. The collector is Cecilia Kwek, wife of Singaporean billionaire Kwek Leng Beng, whose company Hong Leong Group owns the hotel. Come here for tea on a Friday or Saturday afternoon and you can join a 30-minute guided tour that will include explanations of not just the art, but the philosophies and colourful lives of the artists.
After passing through the Astor Bar, which features Picasso’s bullish Toros Series of ink-on-paper lithographs, Megan, a student from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, brought us to the lobby, where Scene from Peking proudly hangs. The oil on canvas is by Georgette Chen, one of Singapore’s most important pioneer artists, thanks to her fusion of Eastern philosophy and Western aesthetics.
It’s easy to be captivated by the artistry, but the afternoon tea is a real treat, too. Pre-tour, line your stomach with a gentile selection of savoury pastries, freshly baked scones, finger sandwiches, melt-in-your-mouth macarons and… dim sum dumplings. – Peter Myers
29 Tanglin Road, tel +65 6506 6866
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