작품 상세

This must be the happiest to date of Awang Damit Ahmad's Essence Of Culture (E.O.C.) series, often dominated with a duller palette of brown and grey. Even the tall expanse of green on the left exudes a pleasant disposition unblemished by the debris of earth. It's a bright day for work and play, as the cluster with phalanxes of orange and red patches tells. When you are working, or toiling, especially on the padi fields or at sea, for a living, there is that eternal optimism that 'Tomorrow will be a better day' and even with obstacles, one's fortitude will somehow carry one through. As farmers and fishermen know, even with a heigh-ho fine weather, it can dramatically change for the worse… Meanwhile, it's good to count one's blessings, and maybe break into a song. With hard work and dedication, painstaking effort is paid off and rewarded, making an honest living. A comparative late-starter in art at the age of 27, Awang Damit Ahmad is a success story of an erstwhile farmer cum fisherman turned Telekom technician and then art academician and an artist of growing stature. His promise was evident during his studies at the Mara Institute of Technology when he was adjudged Best Student (1983). In 1984, he won the Minor Award in the coveted Bakat Muda Sezaman and in 1988, 2nd Prize in the Malaysian Banks Association art competition. He also won the Gold Awards in the Ecorea Jeonbuk Biennale and the Olympic Fine Art in London (both in 2012). In 1988, Awang was among an elite group of artists selected for the Contemporary Paintings of Malaysia exhibition at the Asia-Pacific Museum in Pasadena. He got his MFA from the Catholic University in Washington DC, United States in 1990. In 1992, Awang won one of the nation's biggest prizes when he clinched the Major Award for Painting (and also a Consolation Prize) in the 3rd Salon Malaysia III. He taught Art at his alma mater, heading the Fine Art Department for a year from 1977 to 1978, and retired as Associate Professor in May 2011. Today, Awang Damit is one of the most important artists in Malaysia.