Frame size: 68.0 x 98.5 x 3.0 cm
Nirmala Dutt (b. 1941, Malaysia) was one of the most prominent artists to have emerged in Malaysian art scene in the 1970s. After her relocation from Penang to Kuala Lumpur in the early 1960s, Dutt attended painting classes with artists of Angkatan Pelukis Semenanjung (APS) founded by Hoessein Enas. In a lifelong pursuit of education spanning across decades, Dutt studied art, art history, psychology and printmaking in various art schools in the U.S. and UK. Eschewing the dominant abstract expressionist and minimalist tendencies amongst her peers in post-independent Malaysia, Dutt cultivated a practice that included painting, photography, silkscreen, and collage. Untitled (Federal Hill series) interprets the view of the landscape around the artist’s home, which was in a lush residential area in Kuala Lumpur. It is an early example of Dutt’s abstract collage paintings. It is made prior to the artist’s social and political engagement with art, and offers insights into the artist’s beginnings in abstraction and landscapes, and her consideration of the personal and domestic.Throughout her practice, Dutt was committed to making works that stir the viewer’s conscience to sociopolitical struggles locally and globally—war and conflict, domestic violence, environmental destructions, urban poverty—often spotlighting the plight of women, children and indigenous groups.
