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Lot Essay
"[Abdul Latiff Mohidin] is arguably one of the few artists in this region who has turned to the natural and cultural domains in the region as resources for his art, and in the process has developed an iconography which is new, and not merely a feeble revival or renovation of existing, decaying or dead traditions. In this connection, the Pago-Pago series can be claimed to have a significant status in the contemporary art of this region..."
T.K. Sabapathy
One of Malaysian art's most celebrated poet, painter, printmaker and sculptor, Abdul Latiff Mohidin's oeuvre stretching from the 1960s to 1998 represents a lifetime effort to convey the essential quality of the Southeast Asian region's art and culture. Christie's is pleased to present three works spanning his career this season, beginning with a piece from the landmark Pago Pago series which won him his first wave of critical acclaim and installed him as one of Malaysia and Southeast Asia's most important modern artist.
By 1969, Laiff Mohidin's Pago-Pago series, dervied from an amalgam of the word 'pagoda' and pagar, the wooden beams of old Malay houses, had seen earlier stages of development where the architectonic rigour of earlier works was giving way to a more fragmented picture and where the vertical thrust of earlier works had been tamed. The present lot, the 1969 Pago-Pago (Lot 3456), marked the last stage in the evolution of Latiff Mohidin's 1960s abstract art practice. Forcefully bold lines of black envelope a centre form which seems like a totem from earlier Pago-Pago works. Instead of a powerful vertical form, the energy of the painting lies in a cross-like axis, as much horizontal as it is vertical. Recollections of vistas and expansive landscapes come to mind. The rarity of this later Pago-Pago is undeniable, especially as we consider that by the early 1970s, Latiff Mohidin would be focused on his literary practice, leaving a space and a distance before he embarked on the Gelombang series that came after.
Print works of Latiff Mohidin were executed during a particular period in Latiff Mohidin;s practice where he had access to the printmaking studio at the Atelier La Courrier in Paris and the Pratt Institute in New York. Lanskap X (Lot 3458) emerged from this period, showing also a distinct amorphous green form that is unmistakably post-Pago-Pago series. Telaga (Lot 3458), on the other hand, is a work on paper that distinctly falls within the Rimba series where elements of nature are addressed.
Nature has always fascinated the artist, especially the relationship between human beings and Nature in its various manifestations. Rimba translates as primaeval forest: an entity that stands the tests of time and change, an entity that symbolises growth and a sense of continuity across space and time. Latiff Mohidin's forests, on the other hand, are projected at a microscopic level. They go up close to examine the intricate details of the various elements of Nature. In the Rimba works, especially the works executed during the period from 1995 to 1997, Latiff Mohidin seems to call on his viewers to adopt a highly tactile, highly visceral mode of appreciation. To be seen in such a mode is Green Abstract Landscape (Lot 3457), a painting pregnant with life, with resplendent tones of green and red masterfully woven into one another, continuously in flux, growing and merging.
T.K. Sabapathy
One of Malaysian art's most celebrated poet, painter, printmaker and sculptor, Abdul Latiff Mohidin's oeuvre stretching from the 1960s to 1998 represents a lifetime effort to convey the essential quality of the Southeast Asian region's art and culture. Christie's is pleased to present three works spanning his career this season, beginning with a piece from the landmark Pago Pago series which won him his first wave of critical acclaim and installed him as one of Malaysia and Southeast Asia's most important modern artist.
By 1969, Laiff Mohidin's Pago-Pago series, dervied from an amalgam of the word 'pagoda' and pagar, the wooden beams of old Malay houses, had seen earlier stages of development where the architectonic rigour of earlier works was giving way to a more fragmented picture and where the vertical thrust of earlier works had been tamed. The present lot, the 1969 Pago-Pago (Lot 3456), marked the last stage in the evolution of Latiff Mohidin's 1960s abstract art practice. Forcefully bold lines of black envelope a centre form which seems like a totem from earlier Pago-Pago works. Instead of a powerful vertical form, the energy of the painting lies in a cross-like axis, as much horizontal as it is vertical. Recollections of vistas and expansive landscapes come to mind. The rarity of this later Pago-Pago is undeniable, especially as we consider that by the early 1970s, Latiff Mohidin would be focused on his literary practice, leaving a space and a distance before he embarked on the Gelombang series that came after.
Print works of Latiff Mohidin were executed during a particular period in Latiff Mohidin;s practice where he had access to the printmaking studio at the Atelier La Courrier in Paris and the Pratt Institute in New York. Lanskap X (Lot 3458) emerged from this period, showing also a distinct amorphous green form that is unmistakably post-Pago-Pago series. Telaga (Lot 3458), on the other hand, is a work on paper that distinctly falls within the Rimba series where elements of nature are addressed.
Nature has always fascinated the artist, especially the relationship between human beings and Nature in its various manifestations. Rimba translates as primaeval forest: an entity that stands the tests of time and change, an entity that symbolises growth and a sense of continuity across space and time. Latiff Mohidin's forests, on the other hand, are projected at a microscopic level. They go up close to examine the intricate details of the various elements of Nature. In the Rimba works, especially the works executed during the period from 1995 to 1997, Latiff Mohidin seems to call on his viewers to adopt a highly tactile, highly visceral mode of appreciation. To be seen in such a mode is Green Abstract Landscape (Lot 3457), a painting pregnant with life, with resplendent tones of green and red masterfully woven into one another, continuously in flux, growing and merging.