Della Butcher

 

A Home for Singapore Art

 

Englishwoman Della Butcher opened Singapore’s first art gallery to showcase local artists in 1970. By 1992, she had held more than 300 exhibitions of their work all over the world.

 

Since the 1950s, Singaporean “Nanyang style” artists like Liu Kang and Chen Wen Hsi had been known for integrating Western and Chinese painting traditions to depict Southeast Asian subject matters. But they had no chance to show their art to the world until Della Butcher opened the first gallery in Singapore for local artists in 1970.

After graduating in 1939 from the London College of Art, Butcher worked as a trainee designer at Worth, a fashion house in London. But she quit after her designs were passed off as the chief designer’s work. She recalled, “I didn’t like that and said so very loudly in front of everybody, and then I walked out!”

Butcher then worked at different jobs—as a telephone operator, air stewardess, art writer, representative at a wine company, restaurant owner and even race car driver.

In 1964, she jumped at an opportunity to travel to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah. That was when she first visited Singapore. The bustle of the port in Singapore and the exotic tropical jungles of Kota Kinabalu left an indelible impression. This was “Asia as its best,” she thought and vowed to return.

In Kota Kinabalu, Butcher fell in love with the tribal art of the Iban and Kenyah people but saw that they had no opportunity to exhibit their work. In Singapore, artists would display their art along Queen Elizabeth Walk (where the promenade at the Esplanade stands today) on Sundays. With Singapore’s unmistakable strategic location as an entrepot in Southeast Asia, she reasoned that it would be the best place to start a gallery. Two and a half years later, she returned to Singapore. She became friends with Constance Meyer, a collector of antiques and Balinese paintings, who shared Butcher’s interest in Southeast Asian art. In 1970, after 18 months of planning and with less than $1,000, they opened Meyer Gallery in a shophouse next to Robinson’s Department Store at Raffles Place. The Meyer Gallery was later renamed The Gallery of Fine Art.

Singapore artists could now concentrate on painting and leave the business of selling to the gallery. This art dealer-artist relationship was founded on trust, said Jimmy Quek, a Singaporean painter who held his first solo exhibition there. She treated everyone well and never thought poorly of anyone, said Quek. “The moment I met her, she felt like my mother. She’s warm and very kind,” he added.

Butcher continued to support Singaporean artists even after her business suffered several setbacks. A fire gutted the gallery in 1972. Salvaging what she could, Butcher moved the gallery to Orchard Towers. In the 1980s, art from China flooded the market and many gallery owners cashed in on the growing demand for such art. But Butcher stuck to her guns. To supplement her income, she furnished and leased flats on the side.

By 1992, Butcher had mounted more than 300 exhibitions in the US, UK, Bahrain, Hong Kong and Australia involving 100 artists from Singapore. She took an entrepreneurial approach to the exhibitions—mounting them in places that seemed unlikely but had a captive audience or consistent foot traffic. For instance, several exhibitions were held in makeshift stalls along sidewalks, in busy hotel lobbies or on the decks of luxury liners. Butcher was a social creature—not only interested in art, but also in people, said author Harold Stephens, who wrote a series of biographical sketches of expatriates in Asia. Butcher often held brunches at her home on Sundays, hosting people from all walks of life. Stephens, in a piece on Butcher, recalled that she had a “knack for collecting people that’s uncanny at times.”

Butcher died in 1993. Then, pioneer artist Ong Kim Seng recalled in an interview with The Straits Times an exhibition at Butcher’s where he did not sell any painting. The next day, he received a call from Butcher saying that he had indeed sold a painting—she was the buyer. It was classic Butcher. As she once said, “I can help make an artist, but I cannot help make his skill and talent. That’s a gift. What I can do is encourage him, work with him and give him moral support.”

References

Anne Millington, “Behind the Gallery of Fine Art: Woman with a Pledge Fulfilled,”
The Straits Times, January 24, 1982.

“Della Butcher,” Tribute.sg, accessed August 2015,
https://www.tribute.sg/artist-profile-della-butcher

Goh Beng Choo, “Butcher’s Bounty,” The Straits Times, May 30, 1991.

Harold Stephens, At home in Asia: Expatriates in Southeast Asia and Their Stories
(USA: Wolfden, 1995).

T. Sasitharan, “Mother of Singapore artists,” The Straits Times, January 13, 1993.

“Two wives make a dream come true and set up art gallery for local artists,” The Straits Times, March 19, 1970.

Interview with Jimmy Quek in January 2015

 

 

Della Butcher
United Kingdom, 1922–1993