Lot 80 | Auction XX

LOT 80

Abdul Latiff Mohidin
B. N. Sembilan, 1941

Rimba Series – Puntung The Stump, 1996   

Signed “Latiff 96” on lower right
Signed, titled and dated “(Rimba Series) Latiff Mohidin 1996” on reverse

Oil on canvas

137 x 266 cm

Provenance Private Collection, Kuala Lumpur

Illustrated on page 80 of “Latiff Mohidin RIMBA SERIES” coffee table book

Published in 1998  by GALERI PETRONAS

RM 500,000 – RM 800,000


After a moment of pondering on this piece, one will slowly begin to recognise how the abstraction seem to take the shape of a wild forest bursting with colour and harsh lines and strokes. The artist builds a great momentum in illustrating nature, choosing to address it in a blend of colours and shapes that seem to swirl and and shift, as if constantly in motion. The colours and shapes cannot be tamed, moving about arbitrarily according to their own behest, much like Mother Nature herself.

Latiff was born in 1941, and is as well-known a poet as an artist as well. He was trained in art at Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste in Germany, Atelier La Courriere in France and Pratt Graphic Centre in America. Among the honours and awards he has received are the Salon Malaysia’s 1968 second prize in Graphic Design and the Malaysian Literary Awards for four years in a row, the National Literary Award in 1984 and 1986 and the Southeast Asian Writers Award in 1984 for writing.