Lot 078
REDZA PIYADASA
b. Pahang, 1939-2007
TWO MALAY WOMEN, 1985
Signed and dated ‘piyadasa ‘85’ (lower left)
Mixed media collage
38.5cm x 42.5cm
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Kuala Lumpur;
acquired directly from the artist.
ESTIMATE RM 12,000 - 18,000
PRICE REALISED RM 22,000 |
This mixed media collage in the style of Pop Art, hails from the artist’s prolific body of work called The Malaysian series which shines a spotlight on Malaysia’s multiculturalism and plurality through a series of portraits of families or ethnic individuals in traditional dress and garb amidst a backdrop of the government’s radical Islamisation of the nation. The two Malay women evoke a sense of nostalgia in the face of modernisation with their traditional dress framed within a seemingly rural setting. Their eyes directly address the viewer as though wanting to tell us their story of a life that has now disappeared.
Piyadasa had made several silkscreened versions of this work based on a work by an Indonesian artist. The series began in 1982 and included pieces in the collections of National Visual Arts Gallery, Malaysia and Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan.
Graduated from Malayan Teachers College, England in 1959, Hornsey College of Arts, London in 1967 and University of Hawaii, Honolulu in1977, Piyadasa had won numerous awards: Major Prize, Malaysian Landscape in 1974, Australian Cultural Award in 1987 and Japan Foundation Asean Culture Centre Travel Award in 1992. He was artist-in-residence at Canberra School of Art, Australia, and was the first Malaysia to be bestowed the International Prince Clause Award. He was also honoured with a retrospective exhibition by National Art Gallery, Malaysia in 2001.
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