From Rembrandt van Rijn to Pablo Picasso, figurative artists have been relied upon through the ages to offer an introspective platform to immortalise a society at a particular point in time. As we celebrate our 55th independence this month, some of the country’s most recognised artists attempt to do the same by exploring the murky issue of who we were, where we are now and where we are heading next through a slew of figurative artworks in ‘Figure Out’.
The diverse collection of 64 figurative artworks includes efforts by late art pioneers, namely Dato’ Hoessein Enas, Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal and Datuk Chuah Thean Teng, as well as contemporary artists such as Zulkifli Yusoff, Simon Soon and Anurendra Jegadeva. Grouped into four distinct categories of self portraits, leisure, work and politics, these artworks, which come in the form of paintings, drawings, photographs and collages from as early as postindependence, are specially curated by local art history authority Professor Dr Zakaria Ali. Wong Boon Ken