LOT 05
RAPHAEL SCOTT AHBENG
(B. Sarawak, 1939)
Morning Grass, 2012
Signed, titled and dated “RSA ‘12 morning grass” on lower right
Acrylic on canvas
119 x 90 cm
Provenance
Private Collection, Kuala Lumpur
SOLD – RM 8,960
A master of Sarawakian landscapes, Raphael Scott AhBeng creates a canvas encompassing a potpourri of colours, whose tails and strings turn clutter into something beautiful.
Raphael has a gift for looking for beauty in the most mundane of things, ones that always escape our minds as being more than meets the eye. In this piece, he substantiates that nature is always brimming with colours, and that shrubbery does not necessarily have to look bare and dismal. He introduces a new way of looking at nature, sending out the message that nature can be aesthetically pleasing to the eye, even if you look at it in a different way.
Raphael Scott AhBeng, a Bidayuh, hails from Sarawak and is one of the most prominent Borneo artists. He attended Bath Academy of Art in Britain, where he studied Art and Photography. He won the First Prize for the Sarawak Shell Open art competition in 1959, 1982 and 1983 Third Prize in the Natural Malaysia art competition in Kuala Lumpur in 1991.