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Kim Lim (1936–1997) was a Singaporean-British sculptor and printmaker of Chinese descent. She was most recognized for her abstract wooden structures as well as for her stone-carved sculptures that explored the relationship between art and nature. Her skills as a sculptress and printmaker won her recognition and her attention to the minute detail of curve, line and surface finish made her an exponent of minimalism.

Early life
Kim Lim was born in Singapore and spent much of her early childhood in Penang and Malacca. After her schooling in Singapore, Lim knew that she wanted to become an artist. At the age of 18, she decided to go to London to study at Saint Martin's School of Art (1954–1956). It was there that she studied under Anthony Caro and took a particular interest in wood-carving. She then transferred to the Slade School of Art, where she concentrated on printmaking, graduating in 1960. While living in London as a student, she would often travel back to her native Singapore, during these trips she would often stop off at different countries en route. Lim made trips to China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Egypt, Malaysia and Turkey, finding inspiration in the visual cultures of ancient civilisations: ' I found that I always responded to things that were done in earlier civilisations that seemed to have less elaboration and more strength.'

Personal Life
In 1960 she married the artist William Turnbull, and continued to travel, visiting rock temples excavated in the hillside at Ellora as well as various sites in China not easily accessible to the outsider. Her work responded to such locations where the the effects of nature - whether it be erosion by fast-running water or the movement of light - were at their most distinct.

The couple had two sons, Alex and Johnny, who are both members of the music group 23 Skidoo. In 2012 Alex Turnbull co-directed Beyond Time, a documentary film about his father, scored by 23 Skidoo and narrated by Jude Law.

Career and Works
As a student, she took a particular interest in the work of Constantin Brancusi. To her, he represented ‘the kind of sculptural experience that until then [she] had only encountered in earlier periods of art’. One of her early works, Kiss (1959) is a clear nod to Brancusi's work of the same title. Her curved, sensitively carved version emphasises the delicacy of the embrace between the two heads.

In the 1960s and 1970s her sculptures were mainly carved from wood, using forms inspired by basic rhythmic forms and structures, with each element forming a balanced whole. Candy (1975) is one of the sculptures that exemplifies these characteristics, showing the artist's interest in balance, colour, form and the her concept of 'less elaboration and more strength'. Her prints from this time also explore these modulations, as in the etchings Set of Eight (1975), which consist of simple patterns of blocks and lines. After her twenty-year retrospective towards the end of the 70s, Lim began transitioning to working in stone and marble, which were included in the exhibition alongside her wood forms: ‘it made me very aware of the pull within myself between the ordered, static experience and the dynamic rhythms of organic, structured forms,’ she concluded. ‘How to incorporate and synthesize these two seemingly opposed elements within one work became … the starting point for the … stone sculptures.’ In 1977 she was the only woman and the only non-white artist in the entire show to be exhibited at the Hayward Annual.

During the 1980s, she continued to make stone-carvings and prints and fill sketchbooks with drawings from nature. In Sea-Stone (1989; London, Tate), the marble has been carved with incised lines and textures so that the stone both seems to be worn by the sea.

In the 1990s she became more concerned with imbuing the stone with a lightness and softness, as in Syncopation No. 2 (1995), where a large piece of slate has been slashed with regular cuts, so that it appears almost as a drawing rather than a solid form. During her career she travelled to China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Egypt, Malaysia and Turkey with her husband, artist William Turnbull.

Many of her pieces are named after tangible things, rooted in classical points of reference such as Sphinx, Day, Samurai, Windstone, Gobi yet the forms are elusive. Canonised neither as part of British mainstream sculptural history or as a political radical minority, Lim's work exists in its own orbiting sphere, communicating the timelessness of form.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

 * Axiom Gallery, London, 1966.
 * Axiom Gallery, London. 1968.
 * Waddington Galleries, London, 1973. (prints)
 * Alpha Gallery, Singapore, 1974.
 * Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 1975. (prints)
 * Felicity Samuel Gallery, London, 1975. (sculpture and prints)
 * Tate Gallery, London, 1977. (temporary 'print' exhibitions)
 * The Roundhouse Gallery, London, 1979.
 * Southampton Museum and Art Gallery, 1981. (prints)
 * Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London, 1982.
 * Arcade Gallery, Harrogate, 1983.
 * Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London,1984. (prints and drawings)
 * National Museum of Art, Singapore, 1984.
 * Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London, 1985.
 * Waddington Galleries, London, 1990.
 * 'Orangery Show', Roche Court, New Art Centre, Wiltshire, 1993.
 * Flowers East, London, 1993. (prints)
 * Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, 1995.
 * Camden Arts Centre, London, 1999.
 * New Arts Centre, Roche Court, Wiltshire, 2014.

Selected Group Exhibitions

 * 26 Young Sculptors, I.C.A., London, 1961.
 * Deuxieme Biennale de Paris, Paris, 1961.
 * Sculpture Today & Tomorrow, Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford, 1962.
 * 3rd International Biennale of Prints, Tokyo, 1962.
 * Sculpture in the Open Air, Battersea Park, London, 1966.
 * Chromatic Sculpture, Arts Council Gallery, Cambridge, 1966.
 * 25 Camden Artists, Camden Central Library, 1966.
 * Expo ’67, British Pavilion, Montreal, 1967.
 * Transatlantic Graphics, Camden Arts Centre, London, 1967.
 * Leicestershire Collection, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1967.
 * Nagaoka Prize Exhibition, Nagaoka Museum, Japan, 1967.


 * Sculpture 1960-67 from the Arts Council Collection, Cumberland House Museum, Portsmouth; touring to Worcester; Leeds; Swindon; Hull; Walsall; Oldham; Plymouth; Leamington; Accrington; King’s Lynn; Lincoln; Stafford; Bolton; Doncaster; Sunderland; St. Ives; Southampton; Stockport; Kidderminster; Mansfield; Derby; Birkenhead; Falmouth; Folkestone; Cheltenham; Norwich; Reading; Brighton; Lincoln; Southend, 1967-70.
 * Sculpture in a City, Arts Council exhibition; touring to Post & Mail Building, Birmingham; Goree Piazza, Liverpool; Southampton Civic Centre, 1968.
 * Summer Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 1968.
 * Prospect ’68, Dusseldorf, 1968.


 * Mostra Mercato d’Arte Contemporanea, Florence, 1968.


 * Open Air Sculpture, Middelheim, Antwerp, 1969.
 * British Sculpture out of the Sixties, I.C.A., London. 1970
 * 3me Salon Internationale de Galeries Pilotes, Musée Cantal des Beaux Arts, Lausanne, and Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris, 1970.
 * Rottweil Festival, Rottweil, Germany, 1974.
 * Print Biennale, Ljubliana, Yugoslavia, 1975.
 * Inaugural Exhibition, National Museum of Art, Singapore, 1976.
 * Hayward Annual, Hayward Gallery, London, 1977.
 * International Biennale of Prints, Tokyo, 1979.
 * 69th British International Print Biennale, Bradford, 1979.
 * Biennale of European Graphic Art, Heidelberg, Germany, 1979.
 * The First Exhibition, Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London, 1979.
 * Norwegian International Print Biennale, Fredikstad Library, Norway, 1980.
 * Sculpture, Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London, 1980.
 * Print Biennale, Ljubliana, Yugoslavia, 1981.
 * Summer Exhibition, Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London, 1981.
 * Camden Artists, Camden Arts Centre, London, 1981.
 * Sculpture for the Blind, Tate Gallery, London, 1981.
 * Women's Art Show 1550-1950, Nottingham Castle Museum, Nottingham, 1982.
 * British Sculpture 1951-1980, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1982.
 * Group Show, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 1984.
 * Contemporary Carving, Plymouth Arts Centre; touring to Cartwright Hall, Bradford; Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston; Herbert Gallery, Coventry; Axiom Centre for the Arts, Cheltenham; South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell, 1984-1985.
 * Beyond Appearance, Castle Museum, Nottingham; touring to Milton Keynes Exhibition Gallery; Wolverhampton Art Gallery; Camarthen Museum; Oriel Theatre, Clwyd; Cooper Gallery, Barnsley, 1985.
 * Bradford Print Biennale, Bradford, 1986.
 * Premeio Internazionale Biella Per L'Incisione 1987, Turin, 1987.
 * Black & White, Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London, 1987.
 * Stoneworks, Powys Castle, Welshpool, Wales, 1988.
 * Sculpture, Waddington Galleries, London, 1988.
 * Abstract Art from Sheffield's Collections, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, 1988.
 * The Cutting Edge, Manchester City Art Gallery, 1989.
 * Art Asia '92, New Art Centre stand, Hong Kong, 1992.
 * Light and Shadow, Wrexham Arts Centre, Wales, 1992.
 * New Displays, Tate Gallery, London, 1992.
 * Sculpture, Waddington Galleries, London, 1992.
 * Sculpture Garden at Roche Court, New Art Centre, Wiltshire, 1993.
 * Tresors Fair, Singapore, 1994.
 * British Abstract Art Part 2: Sculpture, Flowers East, London, 1995.


 * Sculpture Garden at Roche Court, New Art Centre, Wiltshire, 1995.
 * Journeys West, University Gallery and Firstsite at the Minories, Colchester; touring exhibition organised by University of Essex, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, Lambeth Chinese Community Association and Firstsite, Colchester, 1995.
 * White Out, Curwen Gallery, London, 1995.
 * Ka Editions, The Eagle Gallery, London, 1995.


 * British Abstract Art Part 3: Works on Paper, Flowers East, London, 1996.