020

b. Johor, 1955
Ahmad Zakii Anwar
Tales from the Perfumed Garden 4
1997
signed and dated ‘Ahmad Zakii Anwar 97’ (bottom right)
acrylic on canvas
43 x 43cm
Provenance
Private collection, Singapore; acquired through NN Gallery, Kuala Lumpur.
Estimate
RM 8,000 – 11,000
Price Realised
RM 19,250

EXHIBITED
Selangor, NN Gallery, Art for Nature, 1997.

Ahmad Zakii explores deep philosophical questions about the self, existence, desires, relationships and engagements in his figures and still lifes. His vegetables-and-fruits combo was done during the early phase of his art career when he switched from advertising. Some see them as metaphors of exotica, but he is more concerned with the aesthetic elements, of creating subtle tensions through awkward placements of objects, but always with a meditative veneer of quiet rhythms. The backdrop is dark and mysterious, which partly reveals the artist’s love of objects of antiquity.