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LITERATURE
Page 12, Yong Mun Sen Retrospective 1999 (Dr Tan Chong Guan, Penang State Art Gallery)
Social Responsibility in Art Criticism (or Why Yong Mun Sen is the Father of Malaysian Painting) By Dr Tan Chee Khuan

The two lone women figures, in tattered clothes, balancing a basket of unspecified produce on their heads on a rickety makeshift bridge exudes a rhythm of a precarious existence. The bleak landscape albeit rendered in somewhat bright hues could be that of a tin mine where new perils from the communist insurgency (Emergency, 1948) fol-lowed the upheaval of the Japanese Occupation (December 1941-September 1945). The 1948 period represented one of his high points when eight pieces of his works were exhibited in the Malayan Pavilion in the British Industries Fair in London, and he also held a solo exhibition called Malayan Scenes at the Victoria Memorial Hall in Singapore.