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LITERATURE
Pago-Pago to Gelombang: 40 Years of Latiff Mohidin,
Singapore Art Museum, 1994, illustrated on page 217.

Who or what is Madame L. Chair? It’s unlikely to be a real person although the scribbled monolith of thorns in the foreground give the impression of a figure. The pergola trellis of strokes in the backdrop probably represents the Arc de Triomphe monument on the Champs-Élysées boulevard. ‘La Chair’ here may refer to the ‘flesh’ than any uninspired pun on ‘chére’ meaning ‘dear’ or ‘beloved’. A rare drawing done when Latiff was in Paris in the late 1960s, the totemic forms of his infamous Pago-Pago series is evident here.

Latiff is known for his art of painting, printmaking and sculptures as well as his poetry and books on aesthetics. He graduated from the German academy, DAAD (Deutscher Akademescher AustGuschdientst) in Bonn 1960. He also took up printmaking courses at the Atelier La Courrier in Paris and the Pratt Institute in New York in 1969. His first major art prize was the 2nd Prize (Graphic) in the 1968 Salon Malaysia. As a writer, he won the Malaysian Literary Awards from 1972 to 1976, the coveted South East Asian Writers Award in Bangkok in 1984, and the National Literary Award in 1984 and 1986. His first solo exhibition at the age of 10 at the Kota Raya Malay School in 1951 earned him the title of ‘boy wonder’ by the local press. He is now regarded as a national treasure and has become one of the leading modern artists in Southeast Asia.