작품 상세

April is the cruellest month, Breeding lilacs out of the dead land, Mixing memory and desire, Stirring dull roots with spring rain. These opening lines from T.S. Eliot’s magnum opus, The Waste Land, springs to mind, as one of the lush visual manifestations. Unlike T.S. Eliot’s immediate post-war dislocations, Lilac Landscape is fecund with solace, hope and desire. At time of painting, Jolly Koh was already in his new home in Australia, teaching first in Melbourne and then at the TAFE College in Adelaide. It is a long, long way from home, which is Malaysia, after two bouts of studies in Britain and the United States. Malingering in abandon, behold such a vista, full of uncertainty and mystery, but oh, the beauty! Let’s stretch into a looong yawn, and lay back, and enjoy the scenery. It’s unusual to find such a beautiful conjunction of artist and academician, one with a sharp intellect. For Dr. Jolly Koh, his life is the stuff of an art adventure. Born in Singapore, grew up in Malacca, made an impact as a boy wonder of art in Kuala Lumpur, he pursued his academic credentials in UK and the United States, and on his return, taught briefly at the Mara Institute of Technology and Sabah’s Gaya College, before uprooting to Australia to teach there, and then back to Malaysia to teach, and now relocated here. His education read: Hornsey College of Art, London, 1959-62; London University’s Institute of Education, 1962-63; Indiana University in the United States (MSc, Ed.D, Masters), 1970-75. Jolly Koh was accorded a benchmark exhibition celebrating 60 years of art in 2017, at the Whitebox Publika, Kuala Lumpur (organised by Curate Henry Butcher), which was accompanied by an impressive monograph – a proud journey since his first solo, at the age of 17, at the British Council, Kuala Lumpur, in 1958.