Image size: 17.5 x 25.5 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. ‘Gelombang (2)’ seems to affirm Latiff’s return to Abstract Expressionism – a sketch which is deliberately ‘erased’ with aggressive strokes attempting to hide its initial layer almost in its entirety. The predominant strokes of black graphite attempt to enshroud the luminosity of a landscape. The threatening visibility of the frame, under the bold brushstrokes could be read as an emphasis of a revisitation of Latiff’s expressive feat and a transition between the earlier productions of the Gelombang series and the explosive Rimba series.
