This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 28, 2016.
KUALA LUMPUR: For the first time ever, Malaysian artist Abdul Latiff Mohidin is bringing us a sculpture exhibition entitled Modern Sculptures, 2007-2015, a collection of 31 sculptures created by the 74-year-old artist.
The collection is being exhibited at The Edge Galerie until May 25, and consists of a range of sculptures from a small artwork measuring 35cm by 33cm by 20cm to a large stainless steel sculpture measuring 127cm by 248cm by 46cm called Shiraz 2.
At the grand opening opening yesterday, Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, managing director of Khazanah Nasional Bhd, officiated the event, saying “Art is a very personal thing. It is [also] public. It mirrors and reflects us and society.
“A good society upholds certain individuals whom we choose to reflect us. Pak Latiff represents all our mixture of aspirations, ideals, fears and inhibitions ... but it’s real”.
Azman, who has visited Latiff Mohidin’s studio in Penang, owns several works from the artist’s previous series of works, and is a supporter and collector of Malaysian art. Also present at the ceremony was The Edge Media Group’s publisher and group chief executive officer Ho Kay Tat.
Ho said: “While reporting the news on the corporate and financial world is the core of what we do, we have over the years evolved to also cover inspiring lifestyle stories as well as arts and culture. We have noticed the growing interest in the world of art collection. While some choose to see in art an investment, others buy art pieces for the sheer joy they bring to the eyes, hearts and perhaps even the soul.”
At the tender age of 10, Latiff Mohidin was already well on his way to becoming a famous artist — he held his first exhibition at the Kota Raja Malay School in Singapore, which attracted the local press to cover his work, dubbing him the “boy wonder”.
As he grew up, Latiff Mohidin went to hone his artistic skills at the Hochschule for Blidende Kunste in Berlin, and after several stints in Paris and New York, he returned to Malaysia, where he quickly became a well-known modernist painter. He has had solo exhibitions in Germany, Thailand, Singapore and London, apart from Malaysia.
Latiff Mohidin also won the Southeast Asian Writers Award in Bangkok and the National Literary Award.
From Latiff Mohidin’s travels throughout Southeast Asia in the 1960s, he was inspired to create the Pago-Pago series, capturing the essence of Indo-China.
In the 1970s, Latiff Mohidin’s Mindscape series reflected a succession of abstract works featuring vibrant, free-flowing colours that captured his contemplative state of mind.
The 1980s brought Gelombang, a series reminiscent of Pago-Pago, with its energy and brushwork. Later, he spent two decades traversing the world, where he ended up in China in 1990 and produced drawings and sketches which inspired the series called Rimba, Voyage and Wetlands.
The Edge Galerie is located at G5-G6 Mont Kiara Meridin, 19 Jalan Duta Kiara, Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur. It is open from 11am to 7pm daily. The gallery is closed on Mondays and public holidays. For enquiries, call (019) 662 0979, (03) 6419 0102 or visit www.theedgegalerie.com.