Title
Union is Strength
Creator
Year/Period
1954
Region
Malaysia
Material
Dimension
Image size: 32 x 52 cm,
Frame size: H62 x W64.4 x D2 cm
Frame size: H62 x W64.4 x D2 cm
Accession No.
P-0203
Collection of
Credit Line
Gift of the Loke Wan Tho Collection
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 Singapore’s pioneer artists Chen Wen Hsi (1906-1991) and Cheong Soo Pieng (1917-1983), Chia fervently produced paintings that showed his interest in the people and landscape of Southeast Asia. An early work, ‘Union is Strength’ depicts a group of Indian workers moving or setting up some equipment.
