Seascape

Malaysian-born Chia Yu Chian (1936-1990) was the first Southeast Asian recipient of a scholarship from the French government to study in Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris (1959-1962). An active participant in the local and regional art scene in the 1950s and 1960s, Chia had exhibited extensively, regionally and internationally in France (1959) and Germany (1960), with his first solo exhibition in Malaysia (1956).Influenced by and exhibiting frequently with Singapore’s pioneer artists Chen Wen Hsi (1906-1991) and Cheong Soo Pieng (1917-1983), Chia depicted village scenes and the landscape of Southeast Asia. ‘Seascape’, a bold painting executed before Paris, shows an emerald-green sea drawn with broad sweeps of paint, rushing up to a land deeply carved and spotted by coconut trees. The opposition of green and orange/brown enlivens the composition.