Lot 141
AHMAD ZAKII ANWAR
b. Johor, 1955
KECAK UNDER A DARK MOON, 1994
Signed and dated 'AHMAD ZAKII ANWAR' (lower right)
Oil on canvas
88cm x 118cm
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Kuala Lumpur.
LITERATURE
Disclosure, Galeri Petronas, 2008
ESTIMATE RM 36,000 - 60,000 |
For Ahmad Zakii Anwar dealing with Realism in the later 1990s, this 1994 work of a kecak dance under the self-explanatory “dark moon” registers a clandestine ritual by a fireplace or places as a nocturnal open event. Those not following Zakii may be perplexed at first at the hazy atmostphere with off-focus figures huddled around, especially with his brand of Urban Realism (later Urban Dark Realism) from his Smokers series in 1997 onwards. After he graduated with Graphic Design at the Mara Institute of Technology in 1977, he went into advertising and was hugely successful. But he decided to quit to go fulltime into Art, and his mid-career survey exhibition (at Galeri Petronas) titled Disclosure in 2008 showed what a genius he is, and vindicated his decision to switch job. All his solos are well followed. His solos abroad included Presence (1999) and Bones and Sinews (2011) in the United States, Kota Sunyi (Indonesia, 2007), Shadowland (Hong Kong, 2001) and Baik Art (South Korea, 2013), apart from his Singapore Tyler Print stint in 2007. |