작품 상세

The Kek Lok Si Temple, founded by Abbot Beow Lean, was an early landmark of Penang and has since its opening in 1905 become a major tourist attraction, especially since its seven-tiered pagoda of 10,000 Buddhas called Ban Po Thar opened in 1930. Standing some 30 metres high on Crane Mountain in Air Itam, the pagoda has a Chinese octagonal base with a Thai mid-section and a Burmese spiral dome. It was called King Rama IV Pagoda because the Thai king laid the foundation stone, while Thai King Bhumibol donated a large Buddha statue. Kek Lok Si literally means the ‘Temple of Ultimate Happiness.’ Every first 30 days of the Chinese lunar year, the whole temple complex is turned into a fairyland of lights and opened late at night for shutterbugs and selfies. Chia’s 1967 record shows a simple structure without later attractions. In 2002, visitors get to view an awesome 30.2metre bronze statue of the Guanyin complete with a massive 60.9 metre roof pavilion. Besides Chia, other early artists who have put it on their canvas are Yong Mun Sen, Tan Choon Ghee and Lee Joo For.Yu Chian was the first to receive a French Government grant for studies at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1959 (he graduated in 1962) despite not having any formal art education. The confidence was not misplaced, for he got accepted an unprecedented 15 times in exhibitions in Paris, including a few honorary mentions (Salon des Independents and the Societe des Artistes Francaise). Apart from solos in Paris (Galerie de Villiers and the Salon de Paris), he also exhibited in London (Britain), Bonn and Hanover (West Germany). He had a grand mural commission entitled, Life in Malaysia, at the Malaysian Embassy in Paris in 1962. He was honoured with Memorial exhibitions by The Art Gallery Penang (1997) and the Malaysian National Art Gallery (September to November, 2002). In 2009, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Art (NAFA) in Singapore hosted an exhibition called ‘Chia Yu-Chian In Nanyang,’ although he is not a NAFA alumni.