YUSOF GHANI
B. Johor, 1950
Siri Tari XVll, 1990
Signed and dated “Yusof Ghani 90” on lower right
Oil on canvas
120 x 176 cm
Provenance Private Collection, Singapore
Yusof Ghani was born in 1950 in Johor, Malaysia. He is a painter, sculptor, writer, professor and curator. His works blend painting and drawing into a visual entity with controlled play of sculptural and collage elements. He did his early Siri Tari (Dance Series) for his thesis. It has strong message content on culture and the theme also allowed him to experiment with lines, movements, and colours.
This work from the Tari Series revolved around social remarks, and until this day, remained as his most popular and coveted series. In this series, he uses dance paintings to portray human behaviour and to experiment with lines, movement and colour. Despite how elegant this painting of dancing looks, it was never intended to be graceful. The lines and sketches on this artwork were executed freely and spontaneously in a frenzied and haphazard manner. “Life is sometimes like dancing – we move about with no purpose but we get lots of pleasure out of it,” said Yusof.