S. Namasivayam
| S. Namasivayam | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Namasivayam S/O K. A. Solamalay 6 May 1926 Madras, India |
| Nationality | Singapore |
| Education |
National Art School (formerly East Sydney Technical College) |
| Known for | Figurative art, figure drawing, figure painting |
Solamalay Namasivayam is a Singaporean artist who works primarily in life drawing and figure study. He is also a founding member of the Singaporean art group Group 90, and proponent to the development of figurative art in Singapore.
Born the eldest child of 12 siblings, and to building labourer parents in Madras, Namasivayam left his hometown at the age of 5 with his mother to join his father working for the Central Electricity Board as a mechanic in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya. Resettling in his new home at the Board's two-room worker's quarters in Bangsa Road (present-day Petaling Jaya), 6-year-old Namasivayam attended briefly at the private school in the Brickfields vicinity ran by Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). He soon was transferred to study at the government-run Batu Road Primary School, through a personal recommendation letter written by a family friend, a Caucasian Board electrical engineer. It was in Batu Road primary school that the young Namasivayam first discovered his love for art through constant help and encouragement from his art teacher, Wing Hong. He went on to study at the Victoria Institution, and had art lessons from his art teacher Yong Tai in his two years' with the Institution.
War came to Southeast Asia and his education cut short with the Japanese occupation of Malaya. When his father was transferred to work in Butterworth, Penang by the Japanese, Namasivayam continued his studies at a Japanese school in Prai town in Butterworth for 18 months before he was deployed to work as an engine cleaner at the local Japanese Railway Station. In 1943 the 14-year-old was sent to work on the Thailand-Burma Railway.
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