Lot 60
JEHAN CHAN
b. Malacca, 1937-2011
OLD FISHING HUTS, 1967
Signed and dated 'Jehan Chan 67' with Chinese seal
lower right
Ink and colour on rice paper
42cm x 90cm
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Kuala Lumpur
ESTIMATE RM 9,000 - 12,000
PRICE REALISED RM 9,350
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The influence of his father, scholar-artist Chan Wee Sim, is obvious in this early Chinese brush painting by Jehan Chan although he was already 30 years old. His father was among the first working in the Chinese brush medium to incorporate the Malaysian milieu and spirit into the centuries old traditional painting. Old Fishing Huts reveals a fascination for structure and grids and is almost abstract in nature. The actual fishing huts and their reflection in the water merge together and it is almost impossible to tell what is real and what is illusion. Minimal in colour, the highlights of blue and red bring the scene to life. Jehan was to engage again with the subject matter of traditional Malaysian scenery, with the play of coloured window grids and stilt topography in different styles and forms in his celebrated Malacca River series of rice paper collages in watercolours and acrylic.
Jehan experimented with watercolour collage on crinkled rice paper in the late 1980s and later perfected this as his distinctive technique. He was given his first two solos by Frank Sullivan at Samat Art Gallery in 1968 and 1970. In 1961, he won a Merit Award in the Art India exhibition and in 1969, he won the 1st Prize (Category D) in the prestigious Salon Malaysia for his work entitled Sad October. He studied at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore where he was mentored by Cheong Soo Pieng. After graduating in 1960, he taught at Pay Fong Middle School in Malacca for 22 years. He turned fulltime into art in 1983.
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