LOT 16
AHMAD ZAKII ANWAR
B. Johor, 1955
Rangda #3
Acrylic on canvas
120 x 180 cm (Diptych)
Private Collection, Singapore
Signed and dated ‘Ahmad Zakii Anwar 97’ (lower right); inscribed with the artist’s signature and date on the verso. This work was illustrated in the artist’s landmark Singapore solo exhibition, Ahmad Zakii Anwar: Distant Gamelan, held at Art Focus Gallery from 22 May to 3 June 1998.
RM 25,000 – 50,000
Rangda, the fearsome witch queen of Balinese legend now materializes here not merely as a folkloric figure but as a spectral presence, commanding and unrelenting. In Balinese cosmology, Rangda is the embodiment of destructive energy, locked in eternal combat with Barong, the protector spirit. Zakii captures this mythic polarity not through literal depiction but through a visceral language of chiaroscuro, gesture, and charged atmosphere. Rendered in his signature acrylic technique with masterful control of shadow and tone, Zakii distills the figure of Rangda into a study of psychological and spiritual tension. The ghostly contours and darkened background suggest not only ritual theatre but an inner battlefield of between good and evil, chaos and order, body and spirit. This work reflects the artist’s fascination with the performative, the sacred, and the mask as a vessel of both concealment and revelation. Drawing from his photographic sensibility and deep immersion in regional spirituality, Rangda #3 blurs the boundary between portrait and presence, image and invocation. Held in a prominent United Kingdom collection since the late 1990s and most recently acquired by a Singaporean, this iconic painting is a rare opportunity to acquire a museum-worthy work from Zakii’s pivotal period. It stands not just as a masterpiece of contemporary Malaysian painting, but as a haunting tribute to the enduring rituals and mythologies of Southeast Asia.