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Tari (Dance), Yusof Ghani’s most celebrated series, is not just about the mere act of dance. Gail Enns, owner of Anton Gallery in Washington DC who held Yusof’s first solo in 1984, commented on this series, “You can feel his underlying concern for humankind. It’s dancers, but it’s also something else. There are tremendous levels of subliminal content. The dancers are reaching out… for something more”.
Yusof’s preoccupation with the concept of dance had started in his student days when he submitted a painting titled Dance: A Cultural Statement (1982) for the thesis component of his master’s degree at Catholic University in the US. At that time, he participated in a group protest show against American intervention in Nicaragua with his audacious body of work called the Protest series. Upon returning to Malaysia after his studies, Yusof decided to fuse formal elements of the gestural dance with the socio-politically charged Protest approach, marking the beginning of Tari. Chaotic and directionless, dancing is, for the artist, a metaphor for the inequality of life that led to chaos; a social commentary on humanitarian issues.
Heavily influenced by the American Abstract Expressionism, Tari is an intense and powerful manifestation of Yusof’s spontaneous and ferocious brushstrokes onto the canvas, where colliding figures serve as generator of a sequential unfolding of linked dancing movements. It also reflects the continued influence of Abstract Expressionism in Malaysian Art after its introduction in the 1960s by pioneering artists like Abdul Latiff Mohidin and Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal; however the distinctive difference between Yusof Ghani and the pioneers is his emphasis on humanitarian and figures as opposed to landscapes. Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal drew parallels with the links of Pollock and de Kooning, “The dancing lines remind one of Pollock and swatches and cleavages of form and space are obviously inherited from de Kooning”.
Executed in 1984, Siri Tari VII is one of Yusof’s earliest and most significant pieces of this series. Standing at 5.5 feet tall and 8 feet wide, the painting carries such dynamism and reflux that when standing in front of it, the visual impact is one that is experiential and captivating. On this stagnant two-dimensional work on canvas depicted with three-dimensional figurative forms, a further fourth dimension of time is introduced. Once eye contact is made, the viewer will be lost in the swirls and twirls of the liquefied life-size figures showing no intention of ceasing their motion.
Commenting on the juxtaposition of graphic and linear elements with chromatic and painterly planes of colours, as evident in this piece, artist Wong Hoy Cheong remarked, “The violent colour and handling is superimposed by delicate, graceful and calligraphical lines. Other times, these lines float over the colours, only scratching the surface. However, when all these elements come together, the visual experience is powerful and compelling”. It is clear that Siri Tari VII epitomises the artist’s forte in balancing the controlled, the instinctual and the arbitrary.
Yusof Ghani studied in United States at George Mason University where he obtained his Bachelor in Fine Art majoring in Graphic Design and later continued his Master of Fine Art in Washington D.C. at Catholic University. He was a lecturer and Associate Professior at UiTM (Universiti Teknologi Mara). His most sought after series namely Tari has been in the proud collection of museums, institutions and private collectors.
