WITH Covid-19 cutting a swathe through the regional population, I've been wondering about the durability of Malaysia's artists. Those who were in their prime during the 1960s and 19'70s are now the Old Masters.
There weren't many of them left before the pandemic, and fortunately that small number has remained constant. As a Merdeka tribute, this is a summary of those from 1959 who are still standing — and painting.
The survivors with the most prominent occupancy of Malaysia's artistic pantheon are from "The GRUP". This band of creative brothers could not have imagined how much influence it would have while it was active.
Starting just before independence, the seven have mostly remained magnificent at auction. The majority of the original line-up are still alive, so it's not as bad as the ultimate film about the Wild West from the same era.
In that 1961 classic, most of the stars were eliminated before the end of the show. Instead of being Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and Horst Buckholz who pull through, it's Latiff Mohidin, Jolly Koh, Cheong Laitong and Yeoh Jin Leng. Anthony Lau was a committed sculptor, which was never going to ensure a lasting future in sculpture-averse Malaysia. Ibrahim Hussein and Syed Ahmad Jamal were the first to depart.
Even older stars of the past who did not form part of The GRUP constellation, such as Khalil Ibrahim and Raphael Scott Ahbeng, left the stage in recent years. Those who are still with us, such as Choong Kam Kow, have scaled back their activity considerably.
If we're looking for continuity of contribution, it has to be Pak Latiff and Dr Koh. Both were born in 1941 and are therefore celebrating their 80th birthdays in this year. Both were 18 when Merdeka happened and, remarkably, were already well established as child prodigies. The two of them spent considerable time overseas but are now back in the land of their birth — not that it had yet been named Malaysia when they were born.
These two have always been inclined towards abstract art, which remains a favoured style in Malaysia. Super-realists such as Chang Fee Ming have changed the direction of local art, but it's the architects of abstraction whose work is inextricably linked with the formative years around Merdeka.
ART OF LATIFF MOHIDIN
Just as Malaysia is still on a journey of self-discovery, those two artists continue to evolve. For Latiff, everything does seem to keep returning to the landmark series Pago Pago. The artist's name can barely be mentioned without a reference to the "totemic regional power" of these works from the 1960s.
It's Pago Pago that won him a solo show — the only one for a Malaysian artist — at the Pompidou Centre, Paris, in 2018. This slice of living history then travelled to Malaysia and on to Singapore's National Gallery. Although there are plenty of other series from Latiff that fire the imagination, this is the one the artist might come to dislike as much as Arthur Conan-Doyle and his Sherlock Holmes.
One series by Latiff that aroused excitement in 2013, mainly because it was his first for five years and in a different medium, was an intriguing look at one of his passions: insects. I'm partial to Serangga after being involved in exhibiting the show, but it won't be entering Southeast Asian folklore in the same way that Pago Pago has.
Since then, Latiff has used his questing nature to create novelties such as a first sculpture show in 2016. Using metal and resin in striking colours, they made quite a contrast with the subtle richness that has been embedded in collectors' minds ever since Pago Pago.
Around the same time he created a towering statement to harmony between Malaysia and Singapore, planted in the island republic's Central Plaza. It's an odd feeling to see that famous and rather friendly looking painted signature impressed into cold, corporate steel.
PROVING THE NAYSAYERS WRONG
At the other extreme of current activity is Jolly Koh, who also has strong links with Singapore. Instead of constant experimentation, he has remained a painter on a quest to perfect his art.
Rather than draining him of energy, the Movement Control Orders seem to have been an invigorating force. Before Covid-19 he had already staged a massive exhibition of mostly recent works. There is another one coming up.
Once again, there will be new material and the sizes keep getting larger. Not as big as the Sistine Chapel, of course, but it's remarkable that Michelangelo had moved on from that mega ceiling project but was still working at St Peter's in Rome when he died at the ripe age of 88.
Hokusai was also 88 when he died, as dazzling as he had ever been. It seems that all those analyses of creativity drying up when we reach our forties are at least 50 per cent wrong. Selamat Hari Merdeka to the artists, who in other countries, would be awarded cheesy "living national treasure" status. It's reassuring that the two key survivors have not even been elevated to datukships. If anything kills creativity anywhere, it is not the ageing process but honours systems.
Follow Lucien de Guise at Instagram @crossxcultural.