PHOTO ART EXHIBITION : ARTWORKS QR CODE #26

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CURATOR NOTES:

Samsudin Wahab practices various form of artworks ranging from prints, sculptures and painting that contextually resonate with his environment, interest and ideas.  Datuk Sharifah Aini is Malaysia’s own Biduanita Negara, a celebrated singer after the late Salmah Ismail (Saloma). Sharifah Aini passed away in 2014, 2 years after the making of this work.This work was one of 30 works by 27 artists commissioned by the National Art Gallery for the opening of Gallery Potret Negara in 2012, the show was curated by Badrolhisham Tahir. The exhibit includes portrait of various icons such as :

P.G.Lim

Sheikh Muhammad Tahir Jalaluddin Al-Falaki Al- Azhari

Alfonso Soliano

Sharifah Aini

Tun Sambanthan

Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz

Tan Sri Arshad Ayub

P.Ramlee

Prof. Ungku Aziz

Redza Piyadasa

Dr. Sulaiman Esa

Shaw Brothers

Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj

Mokhtar Dahari

Temenggung Jugah

Wan Mat Saman

Tun Dr.Samad Ismail

Dato’ Senu

Ungku Omar

Sir Sultan Abu Bakar

Za’ba

Syed Hussein Al Attas

Ismail Zain

Hijjas Kasturi

Members of Asas 50 movement

Ghafar Baba

Zeti Akhta Aziz

Tun Salleh Ismael

A.Samad Said

Dato’ Onn Jaafar

PHOTO ART EXHIBITION : ARTWORKS QR CODE #25

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CURATOR NOTES:

The series Imaging Selfs is a long-term ongoing project by photographer Soraya Yusof Talismail whereas Soraya’s objective is to document 80 key Malaysian figures in the arts. The series Imaging Self portrays the icons in a black & white setting using silver gelatin prints, creating an emotive and personalized documentation of subject in the interplay of light and shadow, featuring local icons and personas. This particular work is a portrait of Dato’ Sri Hajah  Siti Nurhaliza Tarudin

Dato’ Sri Hajah  Siti Nurhaliza Tarudin SSAP[Sri Sultan Ahmad Shah Pahang], DIMP[Peringkat Kedua Darjah Indera Mahkota Pahang], JSM[Johan Setia Mahkota Malaysia], SAP[Setia Ahmad Shah Pahang], PMP [Darjah Datuk Paduka Mahkota Perak], AAP [Ahli Ahmad Shah Pahang] was born on 11th January 1979 in Kampung Awah Temerloh.  She came from a musically inclined family as her grandfather was a famous violinist, while her mother used to be a local traditional singer. She was only 16 in 1995 when she won a local singing competition called Bintang HMI. She soon after made a debut in the same year with a single called Jerat Percintaan.

This song granted her three award; Best Performance, Best Ballad and The 11TH Anugerah Juara Lagu in 1997.

Throughout her career, Dato’ Sri Siti Nurhaliza proceeded to receive both national and international award which are as followed:

42 Anugerah Industri Muzik

25 Anugerah Bintang Popular

28 Anugerah Planet Muzik

21 Anugerah Juara Lagu

4 MTV Asia Award

3 World Music Award

2 Anugerah Musik Indonesia

2 Records in Malaysia Book of Records

Gold Award in Asia New Singer Competition

[Shanghai Asia Music Festival 1999]

2 Awards South Pacific International Song and Singing Competition 1999

Grand Prix Champion in Voice of Asia 2002

Public Choice Award Adelaide Festival Center’s Walk of Fame 2019

Known for being one of the most bestselling artist’S in Malaysia according to The News Straits Time in 2001 [article titled RIM Takes on Pirate 21 August 2000]

Furthermore, her many more groundbreaking achievement is as listed:

1.      Performance during the closing ceremony of 1998 Commonwealth games in front of Queen Elizabeth II, her consort Prince Phillip,
other officials from 70 countries of Commonwealth Nations.

2.      The first South East Asian singer and third Asian performed in Royal Albert Hall, London accompanied by London Symphony
Orchestra (2005)

3.      Nominated as World’s 500 Most Influential Muslim from the year 2015 to 2022.

4.      Known as “Voice of Asia” and “Asia’s Celine Dion”

PHOTO ART EXHIBITION : ARTWORKS QR CODE #24

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CURATOR NOTES:

The series Imaging Selfs is a long-term ongoing project by photographer Soraya Yusof Talismail whereas Soraya’s objective is to document 80 key Malaysian figures in the arts. The series Imaging Self portrays the icons in a black & white setting using silver gelatin prints, creating an emotive and personalized documentation of subject in the interplay of light and shadow, featuring local icons and personas. This particular work is a portrait of the late Ungku Abdul Aziz.

Ungku Abdul Aziz bin Ungku Abdul Hamid was born into Johor Royal Family on 28th of January 1922. His father, Ungku Abdul Hamid was a Malayan prince and military officer. Ungku Abdul Aziz was a mixed of Malay-Turkish (father’s side) and English (mother’s side). He attended both English school in Johore Bahru and Malay school in Batu Pahat. He graduated with a Diploma in Arts from Raffles College of Singapore, Bachelor of Arts in Economics at University of Malaya and defended his doctoral dissertation in Waseda Univesity in Tokyo. Ungku Abdul Aziz was mostly known as both economist and lecturer in which he held the position as vice chancellor of University Malaya from the year of 1968 to 1988. He was also awarded with the title of Royal Professor from the same university in 1978.Ungku Aziz passed away at the age of 98 due to old age. He was survived by his wife, Rohayah Ahmad Bahiran and his only daughter, Zeti Akhtar Aziz. His final resting place is located at Bukit Kiara Muslim Cemetery, Kuala Lumpur.

PHOTO ART EXHIBITION : ARTWORKS QR CODE #23

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CURATOR NOTES:

The series Imaging Selfs is a long-term ongoing project by photographer Soraya Yusof Talismail whereas Soraya’s objective is to document 80 key Malaysian figures in the arts. The series Imaging Self portrays the icons in a black & white setting using silver gelatin prints, creating an emotive and personalized documentation of subject in the interplay of light and shadow, featuring local icons and personas. This particular work is a portrait of The late Dollah Baju Merah

Dollah baju merah was a known master shadow puppeteer based in Kelantan. Dollah was born in 1937. A Dalang, or puppet master plays several roles within a shadow puppet theatre, he is responsible of controlling the narrative of the story and movements of the characters though each scene. A shadow puppet show traditionally narrates stories from folklore as a source of entertainment and also the teaching of values, as such they play important part not only in entairnment but also the education of culture and moral values. Dollah Baju Merah passed away in 2005.

PHOTO ART EXHIBITION : ARTWORKS QR CODE #22

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INTRODUCTION

Eric Peris was born in 1939, Johor Bharu. Eric Peris first learnt of art from his father, the royal portrait painter, O Don Peris. O Don Peris was a prolific painter and was among Eric first introduction to arts.

An Interview with Eric denotes a story between him and O Don that bring lights to the beginning of Eric’s journey in art through photography. According to Eric, O Don Peris had once cited that to be a great painter is through the mastery of color. Once that is achieve, a good painting is not far from reach.

However, Eric’s main interest in the arts had skewed more towards photography and thus O Don advised differed slightly.

Eric narrates that to O. Don, producing a good photography work has its own share of difficulty, despite the reality that a photograph can be made with a fraction of the time than the medium of painting, for the work to matter, it has to be original, and provide its own meaning, narrative and justification of its subjects.

Therefore, O Don believed if photography is learnt or taught it may not truly signify the photographic practice of the artist, or may proof difficult to differentiate from one another because of a patterned style. In addition to the fact Eric also believed that it is optimum to understand great art, it is good to learn from artists to understand their thinking, objectives and product. However, to produce a truly unique work one must understand and explore the ideas, medium and subject to own it. Eric had also accredited that his compositional skills are something that he learnt from his mother, who is also a painter named Dona Peris.

In light of the advice, tested through his years of practices, Eric had advocated the simple fact that a work of photography is best learnt on one own merit, bested through an autodidact means balancing knowledge and exploration as a learning curve to produce good photographic art which does not necessitate a certain equipment, for the most important part of the work, he believed, is the intent & idea that an artist or photographer wants to portray.

SELECTED FIELD EXPERIENCE & CONTRIBUTIONS

According to the biographical archive of the Art Resource Center, Eric Peris began his career in photography as a photojournalist in 1969 at News Straits Time Singapore, and a year later at News Strait Time Kuala Lumpur in 1970. He had then continued to work as a photojournalist through the 70s for the News Strait Time for a period of 25 years. Between 1991 to 1992, Eric was the photo editor for The News Straits Time until his retirement.

In 1984 to 1991, he was also Co-chairman for the Yearly National Photographic Contest at the National and ASEAN level. Eric also ran a weekly photo column in 1986 for the New Sunday Times special section, entitled Sundate.

From 1987 to 1989 Eric had also ran a photographic circle that hosted monthly outings of photographic program for the NST. He was also consultant and photo co-coordinator for the Trans Borneo Expeditions. In the same year, he had also conducted photojournalism courses for Press, Government and Commercial bodies organized by Malaysian Press Institute and Asian Institute for Development & Communication (AIDCOM)

In 1982, he had represented Malaysia as a delegate for the Asean Symposium of Painting, Photography & Graphic Art in Bangkok.

NOTABLE WORKS

According to the ART RESOURCE CENTER ARCHIVE (ARS), among his notable and prolific works were published under the title ‘’Landscapes- A photographic Study of The Tin Mine Landscape in Malaysia’’ and “Image of Gitanjali’’ a photographic research studying poetry by Rabindranath Tagore and ‘’The Malayan Heritage Homes’’ a study of the development and architectural influence in Malaysia.

PHOTO ART EXHIBITION : ARTWORKS QR CODE #21

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As of 2022, The national art gallery had acquired a total of 18 of Ismail Hashim’s work between the period 1974-2012. (14 photography,1 watercolor,1 pencil on paper, 1 oil painting and 1 ink on paper).

painter but moved to photography during the Seventies. He is one of the small handful of serious artistic photographers who have helped change attitudes towards photography in this country.

 His works have certainly enhanced the public view of photography as a highly serious art form. He used to teach graphis design at the Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang until his recent retirement. His works are much in demand these days but he still remains an artist who takes his own time in creating his works. He remains the unhurried perfectionist.

His involvement has been with the capturing and recording of situations, shapes and things that belong to a rapidly vanishing world. There is understandably a strong sense of nostalgia evoked by his hand-tinted photographs. But his approach has always been marked by a sense of realism rather than sentimentalism”

-Masterpieces from the National Art Gallery of Malaysia, 2002.

PHOTO ART EXHIBITION : ARTWORKS QR CODE #20

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CURATOR NOTES:

This work is a selective few portrait with four variation within a piece by Soraya compared to the other artist in the Imaging Self series. In the portraits, Datuk Lat is seen to be holding piece of papers with a variation of features (hair, eyes, expressions) of Lat’s main character in Kampung Boy, ‘Mat’.

ABOUT LAT:

Lat was born in Kota Bharu Gopeng Perak on 5th March 1951. A Malaysian cartoonist, he has shown interest in illustration as early at the age of 13.  In order to earn a living, Datuk Lat accepted a position as crime reporter in Berita Harian before he was transferred to New Straits Times. He was required to observe and interact with the myriads of lives which catalyzed for his cartoon inspiration. Ironically, his experience as a reporter has somehow deepens his passion in being a cartoonist and less of a crime reporter. (The Varied Drawing Lots of Lat, Malaysian Cartoonist by John Lent [The Comics Journal] April 1999).

Datuk Lat continued to be a reporter until he was appointed as New Straits Time’s paper column cartoonist offered by editor-in-chief at the time, Tan Sri Lee Siew, who was impressed with his cartoons relating to circumcision ceremony published in Asia Magazine (1974). Datuk Lat was assigned to document Malaysian culture which later became a series known as Scenes of Malaysian Life. He studied at St Martin’s School of Art in London for 4 months before returning to Malaysia as a full-time cartoonist in 1975 with a total freedom of his work.

Datuk Lat gained his international recognition through his autobiographical cartoon, The Kampung Boy. The cartoon which was famously known for its heart-warming depiction of Malay’s culture rural life has been re-printed 16 times by 2009 (Specifics of reprint: The Kampung Boy Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Berita Publishing 2009) and published in other languages such as Portugese, French as well as Japanese (Chua, Siew Ching “Seriously, Lat” The Hilt, September 2007).

As he received national consciousness through his remarkable illustration, Datuk Lat is recognized as one of the most renowned cartoonists in Malaysia (Rohani Hashim “Lat’s Kampong Boy: Rural Malays in Tradition and Transition” Asian Futures, Asian Traditions, 2005).

PHOTO ART EXHIBITION : ARTWORKS QR CODE #19

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ABOUT YEOH JIN LENG

Born in 6th of February 1929, Yeoh Jin Leng received his early education in Anderson School, Ipoh from 1940 to 1949. In 1958, he attended Renaissance Art at Cautauld Institute. He later furthered his study in both National Diploma in Design (1961) and Chelsea Diploma for Painting (1961) at Chelsea School of Art, London. Besides, Yeoh has also completed his study in Art Teacher’s Diploma at Institute of Education, London University in the following year.

Throughout the years, he has held significant positions in regards to art education such as Probationary Teacher in Normal Training (1950-1951), Art Teacher at Sultan Sulaiman Secondary School, Kuala Terengganu (1953-1957), Act.Education Officer/Act. Headmaster at Sultan Sulaiman Secondary School, Kuala Terengganu (1963), Lecturer in Art Education at Specialist Teacher’s Training Institute, Cheras KL (1963-1968), Senior Lecturer/Head of Art Education Department at STTI, Cheras KL (1969-1983), Design Coordinator at Selangor Pewter (1983-1984), Dean of Studies at Malaysian Institute of Art (1984-1994), and lastly Member of the Board of Trustees at National Art Gallery (1994).

Yeoh has received various awards throughout the time he was active in art scheme, as early as his studying days which can be noted through the following list;  Sir Gerald Templar’s Award to Outward Bound Mountain School, Eksdale, UK (1952), Special Prize for Painting, Salon Malaysia (1969), Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Prize for Painting, Tokyo Biennale (1969), Guest Artist to the Federal Republic of Germany (1970), Guest Artist to USA (1970), A.M.N (Ahli Mangku Negara) Malaysian Government Award for Services to Art (1972), Australian Culture Award (1990), Minor Prize, Sculpture Section, Salon Malaysia (1992), PJC (Pingat Jasa Cemerlang, Terengganu) (1992), and KMN (June 1994).

PHOTO ART EXHIBITION : ARTWORKS QR CODE #18

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Anthony Lau is known for his contributions towards modern sculptures in Malaysia, Anthony has artworks in the collection that cover several versatile mediums, such as cement, wood and also metal. Anthony Lau was a great influence for modern sculptures in the 50s alongside his contemporaries such as Yeoh Jin Leng,Syed Ahmad Jamal & Abdul Latiff Mohidin. Anthony Lau was born in Johor in 1933.  had an art education in London, he was a graduate from Brighton College of Art, Sussex, England in 1957, he was also a member of the Friday Art Group, among the earliest art group that existed in Malaya.

PHOTO ART EXHIBITION : ARTWORKS QR CODE #17

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Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal was a National Laureate, he was also once the director of the national art gallery and also an important artist, curator and designer. Syed Ahmad Jamal was the designer of the Logo for The National Art Gallery of Malaysia,he had wrote many publications that documents and chronicled some of the core events that had impacts on the history of modern Malaysian art from 1958 to 1988. He had also directed and coordinated international and national programs for the gallery.

Quoting from Redza Piyadasa (2002); “Syed Ahmad Jamal has been for the better part of his artistic life an abstract expressionist artist but he played an important role in the Malay-Islamic revivalist movement during the Seventies and Eighties. In 1974, he curated the Rupa dan Jiwa exhibition which highlited traditional Malay aesthetic values in design.’’ – Masterpieces from The National Art Gallery of Malaysia.