Lot 031
Abdul Latiff Mohidin
b. Negeri Sembilan, 1941
Pago Pago (Bangkok), 1964
signed and dated
‘AL 64’ (lower left, lower right)
ink on paper
14 x 20cm
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Kuala Lumpur
ESTIMATE RM 30,000 – 50,000
PRICE REALISED RM 33,600.00 |
Drawings of Pago-Pago done during Abdul Latiff Mohidin’s wandering hobo period in Bangkok with the stupas and tiered buildings were not mere scrawlings of the wandering spotless mind, but gestations to more deeper and more serious manifestations to one of the most iconic imageries encapsulating the Southeast Asian architectonic synthesis of the man-made and the natural world, particularly plantscapes. Latiff had said: “A sketch is not really to catch the floating moment, but the atmosphere. Not only what is there but also what isn’t there.”
Abdul Latiff Mohidin received the biggest boost of his career when selected for a major exhibition of his celebrated Pago-Pago at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in 2018. Apart from painting, he is also adept at sculpture, printmaking and in letters as a poet, translator and essayist. He won 2nd Prize (Graphic) in the 1968 Salon Malaysia. His art education was in the DAAD German Academy (Student Exchange) in Bonn (1960), the John D. Rockefeller III Fellowship (1965) and French Culture Ministry scholarship to study printmaking at Atelier La Courier in Paris (1969). In literature, he won the Malaysian Literary Awards 1972-1976, the SEA Write Award 1984 and 1986. He was guest writer, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka in 1988. |