Lot 110
Chia Yu Chian
b. Johor, 1936 – d. Kuala Lumpur, 1991
Untitled, 1959
signed ‘Yu Chian’ (lower right)
oil on canvas
60 x 46cm
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Selangor
ESTIMATE RM 25,000 – 45,000
PRICE REALISED RM 22,000.00
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Chia Yu Chian likes to use garish backgrounds of blues or red in his oeuvre in an apparent mock-Fauvist flourish. A typical scene of mak chik (women folk) chatting outside their Malay stilt houses before it gets dark, with their young children sitting on their laps. There’s the topography of typical coconut trees around, for shade as well as succour (juice and flesh) and materials (leaves for padded roofing). What is unusual in the foreground house is that there is an added attic hutment sticking out. The roof is not the typical attap-top or Minangkabau shape, anyway.
Chia Yu Chian made a mark when he studied at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris, in 1959-1962. There, he was accepted for exhibitions a record 15 times — no mean feat for an Asian, given the high stipulations and some even with honorary mentions (Salon des Independents and the Societe des Artistes Francaise). He was honoured with Memorial exhibitions by The Art Gallery Penang (1997) and the National Art Gallery Malaysia (2002), and a 2009 exhibition hosted by NAFA called Chia Yu-Chian In Nanyang. His homecoming exhibition at the British Council was sold-out. He had also solos in Britain and West Germany. Earlier this year, Ilham Gallery organised the exhibition Chia Yu Chian: Private Lives, showcasing his paintings from the late 1960s to 1990. |