In February 1959, Jean Aurillac, the French Consular General to Singapore since May 1958, certified the Academic Certificate for Chia Yu Chian (1936-1990). Written by the then Director of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), the certificate attested that the student Chia Yu Chian had, even while studying painting over the course of two years, held exhibitions of critical acclaim. He was thus able to enroll in the second year of Western painting at NAFA where he studied under Chen Wen Hsi and Cheong Soo Pieng, both pioneer masters in the Singapore art scene. With this certificate, Chia gained a French government scholarship to study in the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts de Paris, from where he graduated, in 1962. He was the first artist from the Straits Settlements to have achieved this. Up till that point, such scholarships had only been given to some of the more renowned artists from the Indian subcontinent, as well as China.
NAFA will present 84 works of the artist in an exhibition titled Chia Yu Chian in Nanyang from 13 November till 27 December at the Lim Hak Tai Gallery (NAFA Campus 1). The works, mostly oil paintings and which date from 1950 to 1990, will examine the artist’s stylistic transitions over the years and his extensive palette. During the span of his prolific career, Chia held a significant number of one-man shows in Malaysia and Singapore and abroad, in France, Germany, UK (London), Spain (Madrid), India (New Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras), as well as Thailand (Bangkok), and he participated in many regional and international group shows. His works are in numerous private and public collections around the world. Chia’s commissions include a grand mural titled “Life in Malaysia” for the Malaysian Embassy in Paris (France), as well as portraits for various Malaysian government and political luminaries.
Mr Pierre Emmanuel Jacob, Executive Director, Alliance Française de Singapour will preside over the exhibition opening, to be held on Thursday, 12 November, 6.30pm, as Guest of Honour.
On Chia’s art and draughtsmanship, Ms Bridget Tracy Tan, Director of Art & Corporate Knowledge said: “Chia is special because he seemed to broadly engage his practice on all fronts, on all terms. His paintings define not just what was visionary about Malaysian art, but what was visionary about Nanyang. There was no aping of Western traditions, but a gentle distillation of established idioms to articulate a persistently catalytic Modernity, one that was shaping and would continue to shape, the communities of Nanyang and their interests over many more decades.”
Chia’s work of the 50s, showing kampong scenes, local landscapes, and daily activities, attests to his mastery in observation and his use of light and space, colour and texture to locate his “observing” of objects. After 1959, his practice progressed into fluid textures resembling the Fauvist movement evolving in mid century Paris, where he lived and studied for several years. Upon his return to Malaysia, though still focusing on the same subject matter, he engaged the use of a more visually stimulating and daring architectural mix of pigments on surfaces.
Chia’s works often depicted figures in various shapes and forms, such as the Hospital Series made up of over 25 paintings and many drawings. These are his daily observations, as well as acute sensitivities to the eventfulness that connote his own experiences, having spent a few months on and off in the hospital. The mature work of the 80s and 90s for Chia seem to stem from the layers of a complex and sophisticated blend of fantasy and reality. The street scenes of local landscapes, particularly of Malaysia, are vivid, direct and rational.
Admission : Free admission
