LOT 67
ISMAIL ABDUL LATIFF
B. Melaka, 1955
Walkabout…Red Granite, 2012
Signed “Ismail Latiff” on lower middle
Acrylic on paper
76 x 56 cm
Provenance Private Collection, Kuala Lumpur
RM 3,500 – RM 7,000
This venerable man has been described as ‘one of the greatest escape artists ever to wield the brush’. His is the realm of the enchanted and the enchanting, a utopian world built on love, beauty, purity and power. Ismail’s works reflect a combination of movement and mythology. For Ismail, he only sees himself as a traveller who embarked on a conquest to bring the inner space, texture, colour and beauty of the natural world together and interpret them onto paper and canvas. Art, as he perceived, is life and one of the best introductions to art is nature. To put his remarkable paintings into words would be to take away the spark of life from his work, a necessary evil, to convey the brilliance of his work.
When given a chance, one should stand to gaze at one of his paintings to completely absorb and savour its poignant beauty. His paintings are typically brimming with vigour and energy, evident in this ‘Red Granite’ piece, mimicking the vivid colours of the rock. His works exude life as if silently capturing the raw state of an enthralling spectacle. Usually acrylic in medium and abstract in nature, his art reflects a fusion of movement in the flow of colours – invoking the realm of mystical enchantment that can be found in nature.