Untitled (Fishermen)

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). Although Chia is known for his oil paintings, he has also produced works in Chinese ink, of which three that document Malaysia’s primary industry are in the NHB Collection. ‘Untitled (Fishermen)’ depicts a familiar sight along the coasts of Malaysia and a popular subject for many artists, that of fishermen drying their nets. Although executed in Chinese ink and colour on paper, the work adopts a single fixed viewpoint, a distinctively Western art technique.