Trust Datin Nirmala Dutt Shanmughalingam to come up with such an unorthodox still-life, unusually replete with bright colours of yellow, orange and green in contrast to a dull palette of stark realism in black and brown with socio-political and environmental concerns. This was a phase of a more art-sophisticated Nim, as the artist is better known, had undergone art studies in the United States – Corcoran School of Art, Washington (1966-1967), Art History at Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University (1970-1971), and Drawing at Boston College of Art and Cambridge Education Centre, Massachussetts. The profusion of green on the top left contrasts sharply with the half orb in yellow (tablecloth?) with a sheet of white paper with something scrawled, forcing attention to the foreground and subverting optical convention. Art-writer Chu Li dubbed her "an exceptionally sensitive artist whose psyche is in total attunement with the temper of her time and the struggle of a people." Datin Nirmala Dutt Shanmughalingam was the only woman among 17 artists in the Second Generation Artists exhibition held at Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, in 1995. A major posthumous exhibition called Statements was held at Ilham Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, from July 18-Dec 24, 2023. Nim first caught the nation's attention when her work, Statements, was adjudged the joint winner of the Major Award in the Man And His World competition at the National Art Gallery in 1973, together with Sulaiman Esa's Manusia Dalam Alamnya. She did not restrict herself to only paintings, but also used Found materials, installation, photomontage and documentary photography. She was a Chevening Award scholar (London, 1993). She got her BSc in History of Art and Psychology BSc at the Oxford Polytechnic, England, followed by post-graduate studies. She was selected for national travelling exhibitions like the Contemporary Paintings of Malaysia at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena (1988), the 3rd Asian Art Show, Fukuoka, Japan (1989), Contemporary Art from Islamic Countries at the Barbican Centre in London (1989), and the Modernity and Beyond: Themes in Southeast Asia at the Singapore Art Museum (1996), the 5th India Triennale (1982). She was also selected for the ARX '89 Metromania in Perth, Australia. She sparked controversy with her work, Friend In Need, in the Side By Side: Contemporary British and Malaysian Art in 1986.