Chen Chong Swee is acknowledged as one of the earliest artists to have explored depicting Southeast Asian scenes within the medium of traditional Chinese ink painting. Published on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition at National Gallery Singapore, this catalogue bears witness to Chen's explorations across the mediums of ink and oil, the influence his immediate surroundings had on his art, and his insistence, above all, that it was impossible to divorce art from life. Full-colour image plates, newly commissioned essays and a biographical timeline of the artist within the catalogue flesh out the inflections of Chen's oeuvre.