작품 상세

In 1996, the superstar artist Datuk Ibrahim Hussein was 60, and got his second of three Datukships, significantly from his home State, Kedah. He was still planning his Ibrahim Hussein Museum, on a salubrious promontory in Langkawi. He triumphantly realised his museum in the year 2000, which he brilliantly commemorated with the first Langkawi International Festival of the Arts. That year, his notable works included Kimono and Ale-Ale, with his signature dynamics and rhythmic lines that were transposed here with hints of figurative coalescence over a pastel-hued landscape-shaped cartography on strata of orangey-red (top) and grey. The central blob blended colours in a curious amalgam. What struck out were the ribbons of inimitable lines concealing the central composition as a dominant epidermy. Datuk Ibrahim Hussein has an impeccable international profile with the accolades of the World Economic Forum's Crystal Award (1997), Venezuela's Order of Andres Bello (1993), Chile's Order of Bernardo O. Higgins (1996), the Japan Foundation Cultural Award (1988), and the Monte Carlo Contemporary Art Award (1984). He was the first Malaysian taking part in the Venice Biennale under the Smithsonian Institute Workshop programme in 1970. In 1977, he was chosen to exhibit with Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali in the tripartite masters exhibition in Kuwait. He was accorded a Retrospective by the National Art Gallery in 1986. In 2007, he was awarded the Anugerah Tokoh Melayu Terbilang, apart from the Datuk titles three times. His art tutelage was at the Byam Shaw School (1959-1963) and the Royal Academy in London (1963-1966). He is also remembered for setting up the Ibrahim Museum and Cultural Foundation (Langkawi), which ran his museum, now defunct, and the first Langkawi International Festival of Arts (LIFA). Ib, as the artist is popularly known, was also the prime-mover behind the Club Mediterranee Asian Arts Festival in Cherating (Pahang) and Bali.