Bunga Api (Fireworks)

The expressive brushstrokes used here capture the immediacy of watching fireworks light up a landscape, as well as the lively and festive atmosphere of such an event. Bunga Api (Fireworks) was painted early on in the artist's career when he was just 18 years old, and demonstrates his sensitivity to colour. In the same year that this painting was completed, Latiff Mohdin would successfully apply for the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) scholarship to study painting in Germany. 

Latiff Mohidin (b. 1941) is Malaysia’s leading modernist painter and poet, best known for a syncretic approach to form that seeks to challenge the dominance of Western modernism. His passion for painting and drawing was evident at an early age, when he held his first exhibition at the Kota Raja Malay School in Singapore, to which he came to be identified as “the magical boy with the gift in his hands.” Latiff Mohidin’s artistic practice is often linked to his literary activities, and his literary and painterly world is also informed by his readings of Jorge Luis Borges, Chairil Anwar and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe amongst others. He lives and works in Penang Island, Malaysia. 

This artwork was featured in the Gallery's 2020 exhibition Latiff Mohidin: Pago Pago. 

From Perspectives Magazines' Editorial team, wishing our readers a happy New Year, and good health to you and your loved ones.