VALENTINE Willie Fine Art presents Rare and Important Malaysian Works from 1900 to 1994, a collection of works by pioneering local artists that has been culled from private collections.

A broad historical range of paintings, collages, watercolours and drawings, dating from the colonial period to the early 1990s, is on display.

Each of the pieces here presents a doorway into different periods of development on the local experience, landscape, life and culture.

The so-called Nanyang style, pioneered by the likes of Yong Mun Sen and Cheong Soo Pieng, fused European and Chinese painting elements in a unique way, dominating the figurative and landscape art of the ‘50s and early ‘60s. The introduction of batik as a medium for painting, an effort to integrate a traditional craft practice in picture-making was another important development during this period, represented by the works of Chuah Thean Teng and Tay Mo Leong.

Towards Independence, a number of artists emerged following greater emphasis on art education, such as Tay Hooi Keat, Syed Ahmad Jamal, Latiff Mohidin, Khoo Sui Hoe and Nik Zainal Abidin.

Viewers would also be able to see how Malaysia coped with an increasingly modernised and changing world throughout the mid ‘60s and beyond. The artists of this period whose works are on display are Ismail Zain, Sulaiman Esa, Redza Piyadasa, Nirmala Dutt Shanmughalingam, Kok Yew Puah, Norma Abbas and Amron Omar.

Venue: Valentine Willie Fine Art (1st Floor, 17 Jalan Telawi 3, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur).

Dates: Thursday till Oct 8.

Viewing hours: Noon-8pm (Mondays-Fridays) and noon-6pm (Saturday). Admission: Free. Call 03-2284-2348.