“I always wanted to be historical” – Gertrude Stein (1874 – 1946)

During the early 1920s, Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo’s salon in Paris was a mecca for the modern-minded. Today, the 27 Rue De Fleurus apartment is recognized as the first museum of modern art. At that time, hundreds of movers and shakers in the Paris art world descended upon her apartment at 27 Rue de Fleurus to discuss the sibling’s impressive collection of early works by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edouard Manet.

Based in Singapore, The Culture Story aspires to redefine the art salon for the 21st century, a place where curious patrons, connoisseurs and enthusiasts can discover, discuss and collect new artists and their works. Art can be difficult to understand at first sight, but appreciating art is not reserved for the cultural elite.

The founders started their art collecting journey in the early 1980s, with frequent business trips to London, we began exploring the galleries in Mayfair and most of our early acquisitions consisted of European paintings and English sculpture. Gradually we started looking closer to home and discovered Beijing’s 798 district in 2000, at that time 798 was a lively hip suburban art precinct without the characteristics of gentrification or commercialization. Throughout the 2000s, we gravitated towards contemporary ink painters, artists who were born in the 1960s and 1970s, who experienced the end of the Cultural Revolution and the rapid growth and modernization of China. From late 2010 onwards, we took a closer and deeper look at modern and contemporary artists from the region including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

To date, our art journey has spanned nearly four decades, comprising paintings, sculpture, photography and prints. Today, the collection is jointly driven and led by the vision of Chong Huai Seng and his daughter Ning.

二零年代初期，格特鲁德·斯坦因（Gertrude Stein）与她的哥哥雷欧·斯坦因（Leo Stein）在巴黎的沙龙是现代主义的圣地。当时，数百名的艺术带动者聚集在他们位于27号Rue De Fleurus的公寓，讨论着两兄妹所收藏的马蒂斯、毕卡索、雷诺以及马内的令人兴奋的早期作品。今时今日，巴黎的27号Rue De Fleurus公寓已被公认为第一个现代艺术博物馆。

受格特鲁德·斯坦因（Gertrude Stein）的著名沙龙启发，2017年，张宁玲与她的父亲张淮胜成立无化艺廊，渴望重新定义二十一世纪的艺术沙龙型态。无化艺廊是一个横跨私人艺术沙龙及艺术咨询的混合的实体，其宗旨在促进新加坡人对于艺术的欣赏与鉴赏。

无化艺廊是一个私人艺廊，这里展示着创办人以及其家族的收藏品。它为艺术爱好者以及艺术藏家提供一个相互联系的平台，将新的艺术项目以及活动概念化。在无化艺廊，我们希翼能让志同道合的个体与群体进行交流，在不同文化、故事以及文化遗产、旅行及场所等主题之间进行对话。

两位创办人的艺术收藏之旅始於一九八零年代初期。在当时，因经常到伦敦出差之故，创办人开始於梅费尔区内（Mayfair）的各个画廊间流连探索。他们大部分早期的收藏品都是欧洲的绘画及英国雕塑。渐渐的，他们将收藏触角延伸至靠近自身所处的区域，并於2000年发现了北京的798艺术特区—当时的798艺术特区仍未被商业化也还没高档化，是一个充满活力的艺术郊区。在二十一世纪的前十年间，一些出生於1960年代和1970年代的中国当代水墨画家的艺术吸引了他们的目光。这些艺术家经历了文革的结束与中国日趋现代化、快速发展的年代，他们被这些艺术家的艺术魅力所折服。2010年末，他们开始关注新加坡、马来西亚、印尼及菲律宾等地的现当代艺术家，并对於他们的作品有更深入的了解。

创办人的艺术之旅到目前为止已跨越了近四十年，所收藏的艺术作品种类包含绘画、雕塑摄影以及印刷。尔今，艺术收藏方向与决策由张淮胜及他的女儿张宁玲共同驱动。