Lot 88 | 28 August 2022

 

 

 

LOT 88

KHALIL IBRAHIM

B. Kelantan, 1934 – 2018

Abstract II, 1968

Signed and dated “Khalil 68” on lower right

Oil on canvas

120 x 95 cm

Private Collection, Singapore

RM 110,000 – RM 180,000

It goes without saying that Khalil Ibrahim was and posthumously remains the most important artist in the Malaysian art landscape. Khalil was born to paint. While he began his career as a self-taught painter, the artist foresaw a future in art which prompted a move to Kerdau in 1957. There, he was introduced to Claude Gibb Ferguson, the Temerloh District officer at the time. With Ferguson as his mentor, Khalil was introduced to the Sultan of Pahang, HRH Sultan Abu Bakar Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mu’adzam Shah by Ferguson, who would later offer the artist a Pahang State Government scholarship to the prestigious St.Martin School of Art in Sept 1960. The strict and disciplined teaching at St.Martin meant that most of Khalil’s time was spent learning the fundamentals of drawing and the study of the human form. Subsequent subjects involved painting in watercolours and oils as well as the various techniques relating to the composition of colour, form and composition.

Khalil Ibrahim’s Abstract II was executed between 1960 and 1968, during his heyday in St.Martin School of Art and Design in London. This was Khalil’s period of experimentation and discovery as he became influenced by his peers, lecturers, and his foreign surroundings, with Malaysia Hall at the epicentre. This period coincided when Ibrahim Hussein and Khalil spent a lot of time together, painting. The early 1960’s saw Khalil experimenting with abstraction in works such as this. At the same time, as part of the artist’s curriculum, students were encouraged to saunter around art galleries and museums, which were immensely fascinating to him and allowed him to study the works of preeminent European masters.

The artist would experiment with abstract forms drawn into his sketch book and demonstrate his attempt at bringing portraiture and concepts of abstraction together. This abstract style in which the artist employed was regarded as the London Movement, in which many of his contemporaries would practice at the time, at St. Martin School. Khalil’s art works were still in flux as he sought styles and methods which spoke of his own unique journey. Like many aspiring artists, Khalil participated in numerous group exhibitions organised by St. Martins’s as well with the Malayan Art Circle and at Malaysia Hall.