Untitled (Mining)

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). ‘Untitled (Mining)’ depicts miners working amidst large boulders. Executed in Chinese ink and colour on paper, the use of bright, non-naturalistic colours adds vibrancy.