068

Peter Harris is noted for his distinct British humour - there is no telling if the ‘blind poet’ refers to the Greek poet Homer, British poets John Milton or John Heath-Stubbs. Perhaps it is an open allegory fusing tribal or folk styles with contemporary abstract elements.

Graduated from West of England College of Art in 1939, Peter Harris was one of the most established foreign artists in Malaysia. He founded Wednesday Art Group in Kuala Lumpur in 1952, and was honoured with a retrospective exhibition at National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur in 1960 and The Art Gallery, Penang in 2001. He was also awarded MBE (Member, Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II of England in 1963. A memorial exhibition was held in 2009 at Art Salon to commemorate a lifetime of his work where he had been involved as an art superintendent with the Federation of Malaya from 1951 to 1960 and then in Sabah from 1962 to 1967. His works are held in the permanent collection of Singapore Art Museum and the National Visual Arts Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, among many others.