Lot 045
STEPHEN MENON
b. Kuala Lumpur, 1972
CHOW KIT ROAD, 2012
Signed and dated lower right
Silkscreen on newsprint
60cm x 39.5cm
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Kuala Lumpur
ESTIMATE RM 5,000 - 6,000
PRICE REALISED RM 5,500
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At a time of the global economic doldrums, Sudirman Haji Arshad (1958 - 1992) provided a spark of cheer with his electrifying free street performance in one of Kuala Lumpur’s most famous roads, Chow Kit Road, one night in 1986. Stephen Menon paid him a tribute, tellingly on newsprint, never mind that this one was taken from a yellowed page of the Sunday Times (Malaysia) of 25 June 1972. Sudirman’s portrait is printed onto the newsprint with a photo garland with the words, Chow Kit Road, labelled below in between
the numerics 19 and 86. Stephen has produced other works on Sudirman such as Sudirman Superstar. He has also made similar tributes to Tan Sri P. Ramlee.
Stephen Menon gained attention for his blindfolded selfportraits dubbed ‘eye-2-eye’ in charcoal in 2004. His early influence was Lai Loong Sung at the Kuala Lumpur College of Art where he graduated with a Diploma in Graphic Design in 1993. He then worked as an animator cum illustrator for a Japanese company in Kuala Lumpur for two years. He started producing paintings featuring icons Sudirman Haji Arshad and P. Ramlee and was commissioned to do portraits of corporate and historical figures using his style of Pop Art. His next big influence is Amron Omar with whom he has had informal and irregular coaching on weekends since 2000. His first solo exhibition, Me and Mao in 2010 marked his arrival and he held another titled P. Ramlee – The Unmasking of A Legend the following year.
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