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Diplomacy and Desire: Basoeki Abdullah in Singapore is an exhibition that explores the Indonesian artist’s connections to Singapore and his role in shaping a postcolonial Southeast Asian art world. In response to the exhibition’s evocation of regional camaraderie—one that predates the founding of ASEAN—and inspired by his 2017 Straits Times article My New Love: South-east Asia, Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani will reflect on Southeast Asian regionalism, the pressing geopolitical imperatives the region has faced, and his personal recollections of working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when it was housed in City Hall—now home to National Gallery Singapore.

  • When: 13 Sep 2025, 3pm – 4.30pm
  • Where: Supreme Court Wing, Level 5, Glass Room
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About the Speaker

Kishore Mahbubani has dedicated over five decades of his life to public service, for which he was conferred the Public Administration Medal (Gold) by the Singapore Government in 1998. "In his 33 years as a Singaporean diplomat, Kishore took on many challenging assignments, for example, serving in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in 1973–74 during the Cambodian Civil War. He also served two stints as Singapore’s Ambassador to the UN (1984–1989 and 1998–2004) and held the position of Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1998.

Kishore had an equally illustrious career in academia. He was appointed the Founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in August 2004 and led the School until 2017. Despite his duties as both diplomat and Dean, Kishore is a prolific author, having published ten books. His ninth book, The Asian 21st Century, is an open access volume which has been downloaded over 4 million times. His latest book, a memoir titled Living the Asian Century, was published in August 2024.

Kishore has been listed among the world’s top 100 public intellectuals by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines and among the top 50 individuals who would shape the debate on the future of capitalism by the Financial Times. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in October 2019.

More information can be found on http://www.mahbubani.net.

About the Exhibition

Basoeki Abdullah's luminous portraits of political figures and attractive women made him one of Southeast Asia's most sought-after painters. The exhibition showcases two significant paintings that the artist donated to Singapore: Labour (gifted to Singapore City Council in 1959) and Struggle for the Re-establishment of the Democracy and the Right for the People (gifted to the National Museum Art Gallery in 1981). Centring on these works, the exhibition explores how this exemplary Southeast Asian artist navigated high society and was attuned to the “geopoetic” value of his artwork.

Once described as "the Rembrandt of the East," Basoeki (1915‒1993) achieved international fame when he won an art contest held for the coronation of Queen Juliana of Amsterdam in 1948. His artworks can be found in national collections across Southeast Asia. The exhibition invites us to consider the “power” of art in postcolonial Southeast Asia and to see this prominent portraitist anew.