Image size: 25.5 x 18 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. ‘Imago, Bangkok’ may be seen as a contrary to ‘Pago-pago, Bangkok (2)’ where the outlines of the forms are emphasized, signifying movement. Similar in the assembly of interlocking, organic forms striving to gain sculptural efficacy, the forms in ‘Imago, Bangkok’ are much saturated and dense in its composition, yielding a balanced tonal field – where the outlines and motifs are more visible and static. The solid and sharp lines revealing symbolical forms such as fishing boats, bamboo clumps and leaves, reflect Latiff’s early sketches which he had produced in Berlin.
