LOT 20
YUSMAN AMAN
(B. Johor, 1939)
Untitled, 1970s
Signed and dated “Yusman Aman” on lower left
Batik
90 x 54.7 cm
Provenance
Private Collection, Kuala Lumpur
RM 12,000 – RM 15,000
Yusman Aman was born in Batu Pahat, Johor in 1939. He was known for being a self-taught artist, especially since he had declined a scholarship to the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the early 1960s due to family commitments. During his time in Singapore as a commercial artist, he exhibited regularly with other well-known artists and represented Singapore in the Adelaide Festival of Arts in the early 1970s. He returned to Malaysia after that and became the first local artist to open his own art gallery.
Yusman Aman started with figurative paintings before experimenting with lyrical abstraction. He rose to fame after utilizing the traditional batik medium and incorporated modernist influences, as seen in his artwork ‘Joy of Living I’, a depiction of two Asian women seated on a mat with durians, which is in the collection of the Singapore Art Museum, along with 4 other works.