Cluster Stop: East Coast Malaya Trip

These paintings before you were executed during a trip to the east coast of Malaya in 1960. Over a month in August, Chen drove her car up from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, and onward towards the Malayan east coast on a search for inspiration. Chen experimented with outdoor portraiture in East Coast Vendor. The vendor’s bright red headscarf immediately captures the eye, framing her weathered face that speaks to a life spent along the shore. East Coast Vendor presents Chen’s favoured theme of the mother and child, which can be seen in other examples in the next gallery. The age-lined, well-worn face of the mother stands in sharp contrast to the youthful vitality of her children. Chen’s use of colour is also on display in The Rest Shed (Terengganu). Your attention is immediately drawn to the figure in the centre, who is dressed in bright red and green, and stands out against the sandy yellow and brown of the beach background. Terengganu Market Scene, on the left, captures a busy market scene, as buyers and sellers alike gather around baskets of fruit and produce. The hustle and bustle of the market activity is brought to life by Chen’s use of vibrant colour. She captures the crowd in a variety of bright tones and bold patterns. Looking closely at the painting, are you able to pick out individual persons based on the colour of their clothes? Each individual stands out from the crowd, but everyone also comes together in pleasing harmony. Here, Chen experimented for the first time with depicting multiple figures within a landscape. This is an approach that she would return to two years later in her painting Malay Wedding, which is featured at the start of this gallery. Chen’s travel was a means of continuing the development of her artistic perspective and practice. Her trips around the region led to the experimentation and evolution of her works over the years.