작품 상세

Chia Yu Chian has won legions of admirers for his paintings of street life, kampung life, the downtrodden people, Grey’s Anatomy-like hospital series and most of all, the Parisian scenes. Here, he tackles the topography of the rooftops, like a large piece which is in the National Art Gallery Malaysia collection, but this is imbued with the starkness of winter, thus the harsh icy cerulean blue spread with a forest of chimney tops which help kept the building occupants warm. Yu Chian had one other winter painting, Windmill In Winter (1961), in the past Henry Butcher art auction. In Paris, at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts (1959-1962) no less, on a French Government scholarship, he was remarkably accepted for exhibitions in Paris a record 15 times, a few with honorary mentions (Salon des Independents and the Societe des Artistes Francaise). He was also given solos in Paris, at the Galerie de Villiers and the Salon de Paris, apart from one in London (Britain) and another in Hanover (West Germany) in 1960. He was also commissioned for a grand mural at the Malaysian Embassy in Paris. In Paris, he stayed at 20, Rue du Sommerard in the Latin Quarters and then 28, Rue de la Charbonnere in Montmarte. Chia Yu Chian was honoured with Memorial exhibitions by The Art Gallery Penang (1997) and the National Art Gallery Malaysia’s Creative Centre (2002), and a 2009 exhibition hosted by Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts called Chia Yu-Chian In Nanyang, although he was not a NAFA alumni. He was mentioned in Dolores Wharton’s seminal Malaysian art book, Contemporary Artists of Malaysia (1971) and Dr. Michael Sullivan’s Chinese Art of the 20th Century (1965). On his return to Malaysia from Paris, he had a phenomenal sold-out solo exhibition at the British Council Penang. All 110 paintings were sold, raising a total of RM12,000, a princely sum then. In 2019, Ilham Gallery organised the exhibition Chia Yu Chian: Private Lives, showcasing 160 of his paintings from the late 1960s until his passing in 1990.