For The Love Of Art

In life, not many people are able to follow their heart’s desire and at the same time make a good living out of it. Yusof Majid heeded life’s calling and embraced art and Malaysia. He battled all odds and is today reaping the fruit of his labour and courage.

The Path of Art
Born in the UK, Yusof realised that he could paint at about 15 years of age. With a reference letter from his art teacher and some samples of his work, he was accepted into the Chelsea School of Art in London. Within five and a half years, he completed his foundation, bachelor’s degree and Master’s.

“I was quite lucky because while doing my degree, I was also attached to an art gallery in City Square, Kuala Lumpur back in the 1990s. The gallery owner was actually selling my work. So, I was able to travel to Malaysia and did some exhibitions here while I was still studying,” says Majid during an interview at Pace Gallery which he owns.

“Upon finishing my Master’s, I worked in London for about a year and a half before moving to Malaysia permanently and become a full-time artist.”

Making A Living With A Paintbrush

Yusof’s art became very different after he completed his Master’s. It became very minimalist and abstract.“The gallery in City Square was unsupportive of my abstract works. That time, a new gallery – Valentine Willie Fine Art opened and gave me the opportunity to hold a show, “Quiet Concerns”, which was quite successful. Immediately after that, the 1997 economic crisis happened and demand for my paintings became really low, so I decided to apply to Lim Kok Wing University and became a full time lecturer,” Yusof recalled.

He actually enjoyed his tenure as a lecturer as it stabilised him by providing him a fixed income and plenty of free time to paint. He was thus able to hold a solo almost every year at Valentine Willie.

Then, came the transition point of Yusof Majid the abstract artist to Yusof Majid the figurative artist. “This is one of the most important episodes of my career. It was a very conscious choice. I love doing abstract art but they were not selling very well. At one point of time, I even thought of giving up painting because my career wasn’t going anywhere.” Fortunately for him, his works began to starttaking off. “Restaurants began commissioning me to do paintings and this did not end for about two years.

“Best Beloved exhibition in 2004 marked the change of my style from abstract to figurative. What I really liked about the change was that now I could understand what I was painting. Some collectors of my art were not too happy with that, but I managed to create a whole new group of collectors.

“Best Beloved was also my break. That show sold out. For some pieces, I even managed to sell over ten thousand ringgit each.

“Whenever a piece was sold, there would be a red sticker on its label. It was an amazing experience, as I walked up the stairs and entered the door of Valentine Willie during the opening night, seeing all the red stickers on every piece of my work! I actually had to go to the toilet and pinch myself. I kept asking myself, ‘this is true? Is it really happening?’ It’s a most amazing feeling!” Majid smiled as he talked of a most memorable chapter in his career.

Venturing Out

With the money earned from his exhibitions, Yusof took the risk and set up Darling Muse art gallery with a friend. “We spent so much on the furniture and renovation that I was completely broke. The first six weeks was the most terrible. I was sitting in the gallery worried about what would happen if everything didn’t work out,” he shared.

Fortunately, things started picking up. More and more works were sold and money started coming in. About a year or two they were not making any profit as they tried to stabilse the business and keep the gallery going. In the third year, the gallery was doing really well, especially for Yusof who was the main artist. Soon after that, he and his partner, who was a businessman, began to drift apart. Yusof already saw this coming and had a plan in mind. “I told him OK, I’m going to look for somewhere else to set up my own gallery.”

Yusof was born in London. His father is Malay and his mother, English. He came to live in Malaysia permanently in 1995. “I love the food and the fact that people here are completely different. In London, it’s a big city but everyone doesn’t seem to know each other. They are always in their own groups and that’s it. But KL is so different. People are mixing around and interacting more freely. They are more trusting and less reserved. I really fell in love with that.
“As I am half-Malay, I really wanted to know more about that part of me. When I was young, my family brought me to my father’s kampung in Taiping, and I went to swim in the river and play with my cousins. It was so different from England, and it was just fantastic. I always knew that one day I would be living in Malaysia.”

He went looking around for a suitable place and found the perfect one in the form of a bungalow in Jalan Kemajuan, Petaling Jaya. That marked the beginning of Pace Gallery. “I rented the place initially and finally bought it after three years. When I began renovating it upon paying the deposit, all the money I had saved had to go, and again, I was completely broke.

“I remember clearly, that a miracle happened again on my birthday, Sep 25. A couple walked in and bought my paintings and works of other artists as well. This really saved me and from then on, things started rolling again.
“This whole journey of being an artist to an art gallery owner has really been of various stops and starts. However, it’s been an amazing journey. The great thing is, now this is my business. I don’t have a partner. Everything Ido in the gallery, I control it. Whenever I want to have a show, I can do it in my own place,” he said, beaming with pride.

Yusof was quick to note that whenever an artist was having an exhibition at Pace Gallery, he would make sure that the artist had the whole gallery for his works during that period. “I know that I will not do myself a favour by plastering myself everywhere (smile).”

He said it was fantastic being a gallery owner. “I enjoy being an artist, but I also enjoy being a curator and holding shows for other artists because I am able to help young artists develop. I gave some of the successful artists today, like Ilham Fadli, Ali Nurazamal and Daud Rahim, their first break. I got to meet so many prominent people as well, including the Sultan of Selangor, Tun Daim, ambassadors and many celebrities. Being a gallery owner has opened up a lot of opportunities. “If I knew it back then that I would be here one day having my own gallery, I would not have believed it.”

Yusof said the decision to come to Malaysia and become an artist actually made no sense. “I suppose that when you are young, you don’t really think. If it is now, I will probably think, ‘You want to go to Malaysia to be an artist? It’s so small you would be better off doing this in New York or somewhere else! For one thing, I wanted to come to Malaysia, and I also wanted to be an artist, so I just did both of that! “Luckily it did work out. And it is a most exciting time to bein Malaysia’s art market now!” he remarked.

The Malaysian Art Market

“For a long time in the country, art was undervalued. Regionally, such as in Vietnam and Indonesia, art pieces had been selling for hundreds of thousands for a long time but there was no confidence in the Malaysian art market,” Yusof commented. “But now is the renaissance of Malaysian art. People have started to take Malaysian art more seriously. There’s no confidence in Malaysian art and the artworks have become marketable. “Even the government realises that contemporary Malaysian art is something that can be promoted, and it is going all out to support the art market.”

Yusof thinks that Malaysia has some of the very best artists in the region. “It is my desire that these artists will
be recognised for their works regionally. At the moment, no one externally is looking in at Malaysian art. But once other countries start to purchase Malaysian art actively, prices are really going to go up.

“I hope that Malaysians will buy their own art now when it still affordable, because in the future when that happens, a piece of art work brought at about fifteen thousand ringgit today will probably be worth a hundred and fifty thousand,” he advised.

As for his future plans, opening a gallery in Dubai has always been on his mind. “When the world economic bubble burst about a year ago,I had to put those plans on hold. But I really want to bring Malaysian art to the Arabs,” he said. “If I do a show in Dubai, people from all over the world who are in Dubai will see the works of a Malaysian artist, and that will be a really good thing,” he beamed.