Kim Lim Singaporean-British, 1936-1997

Overview

Kim Lim was born in Singapore and spent much of her early childhood in Penang and Malacca. After her schooling in Singapore, Lim knew that she wanted to become an artist, and at eighteen, she enrolled at St. Martin's in London, where she spent two years concentrating mainly on wood carving. She then transferred to the Slade, where taught by the etcher Anthony Gross and lithographer Stanley Jones, she developed a strong commitment to printmaking.

On journeys back to Singapore she stopped off in Europe and India, soaking up the art 'like a sponge'. These were the experiences that confirmed in her a lifelong predilection for things archaic, and for the flow and rhythm of Indian and South East Asian sculpture : "I found that I always responded to things that were done in earlier civilizations that seemed to have less elaboration and more strength." In Greece she was entranced by Cycladic sculpture. Of Chinese art she was moved most by early Shang bronzes, Han sculpture, Sung pottery: things characterized by formal and decorative simplicity.

Kim Lim exhibited widely after leaving the Slade in 1960. From 1980, she turned to stone-carving, whilst continuing to make prints and fill sketchbooks with drawings from nature. With her husband the sculptor and painter William Turnbull, she made journeys to China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Egypt , Malaysia and Turkey, always alert to art and nature alike, and with a sharp eye to human diversity.

Related artists

Works

Red Octagon, 1969
etching
15 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches
40 x 40 cm

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Blue Octagon, 1969
etching
15 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches
40 x 40 cm

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Ring Engraving, 1970
etching
16 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches
42 x 42 cm

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Rose Madder (Red Disc), 1970
aquatint
16 1/8 x 16 1/8 inches
41 x 41 cm

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Ladder III, 1972
etching
30 1/4 x 17 1/2 inches
77 x 44.3 cm

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Ladder IV, 1972
etching
22 7/8 x 9 7/8 inches
58 x 25 cm

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Ladder V, 1974
etching
30 1/2 x 20 1/4 inches
77.5 x 51.5 cm

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Gate, 1974
woodcut
17 3/8 x 25 5/8 inches
44 x 65 cm

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Dunhuang Series 4, 1988
lithograph on Somerset wove
21 3/8 x 29 1/2 inches
54.4 x 75 cm

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Dunhuang Series 3, 1988
lithograph on Somerset wove
21 3/8 x 29 1/2 inches
54.4 x 75 cm

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Dunhuang Series 2, 1988
lithograph on Somerset wove
21 3/8 x 29 1/2 inches
54.4 x 75 cm

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Dunhuang Series 1, 1988
lithograph on Somerset wove
21 3/8 x 29 1/2 inches
54.4 x 75 cm

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Blue Wash, 1993
lithograph
23 5/8 x 22 1/4 inches
60 x 56.5 cm

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Untitled Lithograph (Grey on white), 1993
lithograph
26 5/8 x 19 1/4 inches
67.5 x 49 cm

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Time Shift B, 1993
screenprint
20 1/2 x 15 3/8 inches
52 x 39.2 cm

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Time Shift F, 1993
Screenprint
15 3/8 x 20 1/2 inches
39 x 52 cm

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Time Shift E, 1993
Screenprint
15 3/8 x 20 1/2 inches
39 x 52 cm

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Time Shift D, 1993
Screenprint
15 3/8 x 20 1/2 inches
39 x 52 cm

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Time Shift C, 1993
Screenprint
15 3/8 x 20 1/2 inches
39 x 52 cm

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Time Shift A, 1993
Screenprint
15 3/8 x 20 1/2 inches
39 x 52 cm

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Shaded Grey, 1993
lithograph
20 7/8 x 21 1/8 inches
53 x 53.5 cm

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