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During Dato’ Sharifah Fatimah’s visit to the Petra ruins in Jordan in 1992, she came up with a tactile and subdued colour palette which could be luminescent at times. The artist used the technique not only as “majestic markings of antiquity” to interpret the location, but also as a vehicle to transcend other forms of expression. This work consists of different shapes and strokes executed in varied colours on a dark backdrop all boxed by thick bars on all four sides.

Dato’ Sharifah Fatimah is known for her unique abstract art infused with divine truth, lyrical symbolism and a spectrum of local colours. She was the Best Student when she graduated from the Mara Institute of Technology in 1971, which she followed up with a First Class Honours for her BFA at Reading University, England in 1976 and her Masters under the JDR III Fund Fellowship at Pratt Institute in New York from 1976 to 1978. She has had solos all over the world since she held her first solo show at Alpha Gallery, Singapore in 1972. She has won several prestigious awards including the Minor Award, Malaysian Landscapes (1972), the Major Award, Salon Malaysia (1979), and the Minor Award in the Young Contemporary Artist in 1981. A curator with the National Art Gallery from 1982 to 1989, she has been a full-time artist since 1990. In 2006, she was bestowed the ‘Dato’ title by the Sultan of Kedah – the first female artist to have been honoured for her artistic merit.