작품 상세

The end-1960s/1970 period not only heralded the fledgling art career of Ibrahim Hussein but was also the most significant and powerful, with iconic works such as My Father And The Astronaut, Lebai Malang, Pak Utih, Chairil Anwar and May 13. Ib, as the artist is popularly known, was on an adrenalin high - Singapore, London and then New York. In 1967, he received a double prestigious boost, the Fulbright travelling scholarship and the John D. Rockeller III Fund Fellowship, and it resulted in a double solo exhibition in New York, at the Newsweek Gallery and the Galerie Internationale, his second there the first being in 1964 of his gouaches - all sold out! Pop Art was very prevalent then, and Ib was combining text, fragments of random readymade images and pockets of the painterly. The text, in serif fonts and universe, were cut and in reverse image and put randomly as were the images, which had nothing to do with any narrative whatsoever. One of Malaysia's most high-profiled international artists, Datuk Ibrahim Hussein was honoured with the highly prestigious World Economic Forum's Crystal Award (1997), besides Venezuela's Order of Andres Bello (1993), and Chile's Order of Bernardo O. Higgins (1996), and Anugerah Tokoh Melayu Terbilang (2007). In 1984, he won the Monte Carlo art prize, and in 1977, he was chosen to exhibit with Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali in Kuwait. Ib studied at the Byam Shaw School (1959-1963) and the Royal Academy in London (1963-1966) after an unfinished stint at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore (1956). He was the first Malaysian to take part in the Venice Biennale in 1977. At home, he was accorded a Retrospective by the National Art Gallery in 1986. He also set up the Ibrahim Museum and Cultural Foundation (Langkawi), and organised the Langkawi International Festival of Arts, and the Club Mediterranee Asian Arts Festival in Cherating (Pahang) and Bali.