작품 상세

Life is a struggle - that is the biggest takeaway from Awang Damit Ahmad's seminal Essence Of Culture and purportedly subsequent series, too. Awang Damit Ahmad spent the early years helping his fisherman-farmer father in Kuala Penyu in Sabah, overcoming adversities and the vagaries of weather. Fishes and growing vegetables in traditional motifs, banana fronds for shelter: all encapsulated in symbolic homilies of inculcating right values and spirit of life, to fortify for future challenges. The numerals, 90/10, indicates the 10th piece done in the year 1990. The saga of Awang Damit Ahmad from fisherman-farmer to Telekoms technician to taking up Art at age 27 is a fairy-tale of grit, determination and natural talent. After studies at the Mara Institute of Technology, emerging as a Top Student, he studied up to his Masters at the Catholic University in Washington, and returning to teach at UiTM until his retirement with the rank of Associate Professor in May 2011. His huge potential was attested by the string of awards: the Major Award in Salon Malaysia III, the Minor Award in the Bakat Muda Sezaman (1984), 2nd Prize in the Malaysian Bank Association art competition (1988), and the Gold Award in the Ecorea Jeonbuk Biennale and the Olympic Fine Art in London, both in 2012. He first represented Malaysia in the Contemporary Paintings of Malaysia exhibition at the Asia-Pacific Museum in Pasadena in 1988. In 2022, his E.O.C. (Perjalanan Malam, 1989) and E.O.C. (Ingatan Waktu Kecil, 1985) were sold for RM212,800 and RM218,400, in the Henry Butcher Art Auction November edition and July edition, respectively. In the Henry Butcher March 2021 Art Auction, his E.O.C. (Apa Khabar Ledang, 1992) was sold for RM224,000.