SINGAPORE — The highly-anticipated Singapore Biennale opens tomorrow with an eye on the future of Singapore and South-east Asian contemporary art.

The biennale’s theme, If The World Changed, is meant to explore the rich cultures of the South-east Asian region, and how quickly it has transformed, via the works presented by the artists — such as Ahmad Abu Bakar, Robert Zhao Renhui and Erica Lai — as they “respond to and reconsider the worlds we live in, and the worlds we want to live in”.

But even before the curtain rises on that major arts event, arts lovers can whet their appetite with the first major satellite show of the biennale.

With its title being a play on the biennale’s theme — it’s called A Changed World: Singapore Art 1950s-1970s — the exhibition at the National Museum of Singapore offers a quick, but meaningful, glance at the country’s past through art, comprising about 120 paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures from the National Collection.

“It looks at this period of change — social, economic, political — before Singapore independence and the years after it, through the perspective of Singapore artists and how they responded (to these changes),” said co-curator Daniel Tham.

In a way, this exhibition serves as an introduction of sorts to the biennale: It focusses on the advent of contemporary art in Singapore, and comprises works from a veritable who’s who of Singapore’s pioneering artists from the so-called first and second generations, including Liu Kang, Cheong Soo Pieng, Lim Hak Tai, Chua Mia Tee, Georgette Chen, Ng Eng Ten, Anthony Poon and Thomas Yeo.

While some might argue that certain elements — such as the progressive Equator Art Society and works by Malay artists — have been overlooked or under-emphasised, key arts groups and events in Singapore’s modern art history are highlighted, such as the Modern Art Society or the Nanyang artists who embarked on a seminal trip to Bali.

The first section looks at art from the ’50s to the ’60s, and its preoccupation with specific subject matters like the Singapore river, kampung life or the Hock Lee bus riots. The paintings reflect the artists making sense of the world around them — not just examining their national identity, but their place in the region.

“They thought of themselves as part of the region,” shared co-curator Szan Tan.

A rapidly-urbanising Singapore is captured in the show’s second section of art from the ’60s to the ’70s. Realist paintings sought to document urban development, as in Lai Kui Fang’s Construction Of Sheares Bridge, or the “softer” view of Ong Kim Seng’s watercolour piece, Jalan Bukit Merah Block 106.

The inclusion of a number of photographic works, reflecting the flourishing of photography exhibitions at that time, reinforces its place in the broader history of Singapore modern art; and the abstract works, such as Abdul Ghani Hamid’s The Face In Mediation also hint at the next phase of Singapore art.

As such, A Changed World is as much a history of Singapore modern art as it is a history of Singapore through art. Said Tan: “The second generation of abstract artists paved the way for contemporary art (of today). They themselves were considered contemporary during their time.”

And in a way, it’s fitting that this exhibition is a herald for the Singapore Biennale.

What: A Changed World: Singapore Art 1950s — 1970s

When: Oct 25 to March 16, 2014

Where: Exhibition Gallery 2, National Museum Of Singapore

Admission: Free

The Singapore Biennale (www.singaporebiennale.org) opens tomorrow. Don’t forget to catch our top picks for this year’s biennale next Monday.