Image size: 23 x 13.5 cm
Latiff Mohidin, born in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia in 1941 completed his primary education in Singapore. While in Singapore, at an early age, Latiff’s precocity in understanding paintings earned him the nickname, ‘Wonder Boy’. From 1960-1964, Latiff studied art at Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste in Berlin, Germany and did brief residencies in Paris and New York. Inspired by his exploration of Southeast Asia in 1964, Latiff has since produced compelling series of artworks – the result of a synthesis between his European experience and the rediscovery of his homeland. He is also a poet who has published several volumes of poetry. ‘Composition, New York’ was printed when Latiff took up printmaking at Pratt Graphic Centre, New York. Although the key as a subject is alien to Latiff’s previous oeuvres, it is still stacked and overlapped on top of its multiple-self to form a familiar totemic or architectonic structure. The etching and the key as a subject seem to symbolize Latiff’s next innate series: apart from a break from the past, it is the key to Latiff’s mindscape and inner energy.
