FEB 19 — Ibrahim Hussein, who died early this morning, was the artist almost every working Malaysian artist, especially the Malays, looked up to in terms of local and international artistic achievement and financial success.
The price of his works, before his untimely death, is easily above RM500,000 and this is also why his works are well sought after as an art investment.
In my opinion, he was undoubtedly seated at the head of the artistic table before his death.
In the second place, the position was open and it was a choice between Latiff Mohidin and Syed Ahmad Jamal.
Now that the first place is vacant, who will take the spot is a matter of interest and for another article.
Why was he at the top?
Well, he started his artistic career in the ‘60s together with Anthony Lau, Jolly Koh, Cheong Laitong, Latiff Mohidin and Syed Ahmad Jamal, the six major creative personalities at that time.
They had all just returned from their art training abroad and the National Art Gallery and art community welcomed them with open arms.
The emergence of this young — and at that time new — talents somewhat overshadowed the pioneer painters like Yong Mun Sen, Hoessein Enas, Chuah Thean Teng, Tay Hooi Keat and a few more artists.
But it was these older artists that first started Ibrahim or Ib’s interest in art.
Ib had a swift rise in his art career. He had a brief stint at the Nanyang Academy of Art in Singapore, then went on to the Byam Show School of Drawing and Painting in London and he finished at the Royal Academy Schools, also in London in 1966.
During his time in London he met and got to know many Malaysians who were also fellow students there and later, back home, these contacts were in many ways instrumental to his steady climb to artistic fame and fortune.
Ib, who was a very entertaining story teller, often mentioned old friends who were important figures in the business and government institutions in the stories about his life.
His early training in the British art schools and the then-popular Pop Art movement, gave him his firm foundation in drawing, especially the figure.
Most of his subjects are of people but he also did produce landscapes and print-collages as well.
One of his paintings, “My Father & The Astronaut”, done in acrylics in the 1970, is in my view, the best example of Ib’s early mature style (without the multiple colour lines overlay).
This 127x195cm painting is made up of two figures, as suggested by the title. Over the two figures he printed numbers and words; it even has an American dollar bill montaged on the painting.
This was his using popular and topical world news images about the first moon landing at that time. The lush green padi field landscape reflected on the visor of the astronaut brings in the surprise question: “Why land on the moon with nothing there? Why not land in my poor father’s padi field in Alor Setar and introduce some improvement there?”
In the ‘80s the second stage of his painting with figures covered with multiple colour lines is best seen in “Dance of Life”, done in acrylics in 1982.
This is one of his larger works, 198.5x 275cm and it is of a group of figures moving and many directions across the surface.
By that time, his handling of the shapes and movement of the body was very sure-handed and the additional covering of the thin veil of soft colour lines added a ambiguous look to the work: Are the dancers with or without costumes? Are the figures dancing or doing something else?
By the ‘90s, Ib was at the height of his artistic and financial success.
He set up his own Ibrahim Hussein Museum and Cultural Foundation and also got public donations to build his own building on state land in Langkawi.
This was to be both his own art gallery as well as a show case of other artworks from abroad.
In that collection, the painting, “Whispering” 1995, is his signature best. This two metre square work is of a few figures in various positions of embrace or interlocking action.
Ib was at ease with his subject and he could make them twist and turn any way his eye and mind and hands wished them to go.
The audience had to make their own mind up as to what this group of bodies was doing, in their whispering lines and shapes. Ib, by then, was a master of artistic concealment or revelation in his painting.
I have not seen any of his recent works done from 2000 onwards.
In any case many artists like me have benefitted from looking at Ib’s paintings developed over the last 30 to 40 years and without his artistic legacy, our cultural life would be poorer for it.
There are, no doubt, many “anak-anak Ibrahim Hussein” out there trying to imitate his style over the years and many more to come after this.
This is just what artistic creativity is about.
With his death all the secrets of his imagery in his work will forever be gone.
Happily though, even if his body is no more with us, his works and the spirit and energy of his body of works are still somewhere in his museum or in some private collections.
Hopefully, there will be a major retrospective of his artworks sometime in the future. This will certainly be useful and important to the art community and all Malaysians to remember and to cherish this unique artistic son’s contribution.
Rest in peace, my fellow artist.
* Victor Chin is a Kuala Lumpur-based artist and photographer.
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