Western Figures in Oriental Clouds and Waves

Long Thien Shih is best known for his role in the history of modern printmaking in Malaysia. He studied in Paris at Atelier 17 and the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts (Atelier de Lithography) in 1966-68 under a French government scholarship, before moving to London to further his studies at the Royal College of Art (MFA, Printmaking, 1969-1972). He lived in Paris for around a decade before moving back to Malaysia. He has won awards such as the First Prize in the 1961 Young Malayan Artists Competition in Kuala Lumpur (Arts Council Malaya) and the 1992 Prints Prize in Salon Malaysia. His subjects and themes range from human sexuality, environmental concerns, social satires as well as careful observations of local and international culture and politics. Here, the sexy voluptuous figure set in the Hokusai-styled background speaks to his view that Asian tastes and attitudes in sexuality were fully influenced by Western values and models because of colonisation.