LOT 64
YUSOF GHANI
B. Johor, 1950
Siri Topeng, 1990
Oil on canvas
25.5 x 25.5 cm
Private Collection, Sarawak
RM 4,500 – RM 9,000
Yusof Ghani was born in 1950 in Johor and used to frequent a small movie theatre as a young boy, where he developed a predisposition towards painting. He received a scholarship to study art at George Mason University, USA, where he studied Graphic Art and proceeded to pursue his Master’s in Fine Art at Catholic University, Washington. Upon returning to Malaysia, he began lecturing in Universiti MARA Institute of Technology.
This particular piece was inspired by the masks of Kenyah and Kayan from his trip to Sarawak, the cultural motifs played a major part in Yusof Ghani’s Siri Topeng. It merely is an expression of faces, combining oil on canvas in controlled structures, intensified by outlines which shows the artist’s effort in exploring new forms and visual approaches that are to the point, solid, structured and meaningful. The figure, seen as a formative generator and embodiment of movement is radically altered by Yusof Ghani. He dismantles and transforms them into planes of colour and curving lines. They are almost forceful, and at times, even awkward.