Women of the Philippines

Yeh Chi Wei (1913-1981) was born in Fuzhou, China and is included among a group referred to as Singapore's �first generation artists�. Graduating from Shanghai's Xinhua Academy of Fine Arts in 1936, Yeh worked as an art teacher throughout Malaya and Singapore until 1964, while being an active member of various art groups. He was especially noted in having started a series of painting trips since 1960 to various Southeast Asian and Asian countries under the Ten Men Group, organising the Ten Men Art Exhibitions after such trips. By 1970 Yeh and his intermittent travelling group of artists had toured widely throughout Southeast Asia, while he travelled alone to the Philippines in 1976. By this time, his evolving artistic style reflects his acquired appreciation and understanding of Western and Eastern art theories, as well as his intellectual pursuit of various Chinese traditions of painting, printing, and engraved inscriptions. This painting, in particular, appears to have (contemporary) woodblock printing overtones - a rich black colour is the final layer applied over a loose composition of geometric shapes and figurative forms of colour.