LOT 12
TAJUDDIN ISMAIL, DATO’
B. Negeri Sembilan, 1949
Black Windrift, 1999
Acrylic on canvas
153 x 153 cm
Private Collection, Singapore
Signed and dated “Taj 99” on lower right
RM 40,000 – 70,000
In Black Windrift, Tajuddin Ismail—one of Malaysia’s foremost abstract artists—demonstrates his enduring mastery of visual balance, spatial tension, and poetic minimalism. Executed in 1999, this striking work belongs to a pivotal period in the artist’s career, where his compositions became increasingly meditative and distilled, reflecting a mature synthesis of form, texture, and atmosphere.
The canvas, measuring 153 x 153 cm, evokes a profound sense of movement and quiet dynamism. The title Black Windrift suggests both motion and stillness—a visual metaphor for wind carving its path through space, captured in Tajuddin’s restrained yet expressive palette. Broad, disciplined fields of tone are offset by subtle linear gestures, inviting the viewer into a contemplative dialogue between presence and void, rhythm and silence.
A trained architect and designer, Tajuddin brings to his painting a unique formal precision that coexists with a lyrical sensibility. His work is influenced by modernist abstraction, yet deeply rooted in a Southeast Asian aesthetic philosophy, where harmony and simplicity are central.