National Gallery Singapore presents Diplomacy and desire: Basoeki Abdullah in Singapore, a solo exhibition by celebrated Indonesian painter Basoeki Abdullah (1915–1993), known for his striking portraits and high-profile patrons across postcolonial Southeast Asia.

Housed in Dalam Southeast Asia – the Gallery’s experimental project that showcases curatorial experimentation and platforms lesser-known perspectives on the region’s art and histories – the exhibition offers a provocative look at power, beauty, and diplomacy in the region through the eyes of one of Southeast Asia’s most sought-after portraitists. It explores how Basoeki navigated his roles as a high-society painter and a cultural producer attuned to the “geopoetic” agency of his art – deploying it to cultivate regional imaginations, support decolonisation efforts, and navigate geopolitical and ideological differences.

Focusing on Basoeki’s relationship with Singapore, where he lived between 1958 and 1960, Diplomacy and desire centres on two significant artworks he gifted to the country. This period coincided with Singapore’s transition toward self-governance in 1959. Labour was presented to the City Council of Singapore in 1959 and received by then-Minister for Culture S. Rajaratnam, while Struggle for the re-establishment of the democracy and the Right for the people was donated to the National Museum Art Gallery in 1981.

The exhibition also features a selection of pastel drawings of women and luminous portraits of political figures in post-war Singapore – works that cemented Basoeki’s reputation as one of the region’s most sought-after painters. These pieces explore the entanglement of aesthetics and influence, revealing how beauty and power were negotiated through art. Drawn from Singapore’s National Collection, these works were part of a significant 1994 donation by Lok Bok Sim to the Singapore Art Museum.

Basoeki’s patrons included some of the most prominent regional leaders of the time, such as Indonesian Presidents Soekarno and Soeharto, Philippine President and First Lady Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit of Thailand, Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia, and Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei.

For the first time, archival photographic assemblages made by the artist, on loan from Museum Basoeki Abdullah, Indonesian Heritage Agency, are also being shown publicly.

Running until 1 February 2026, Diplomacy and desire is the fifth edition in the Dalam Southeast Asia series, located in the UOB Southeast Asia Gallery.