Rare collection of pioneer art

Rare collection of pioneer art

ART enthusiasts and collectors in Penang will have a chance to admire the paintings of some of Malaysia’s late art pioneers at a five-day The Prelude exhibition starting tomorrow.

Among the great works to be featured by Henry Butcher at Alpha Utara Gallery on China Street are the late Datuk Ibrahim Hussein’s 1969 acrylic painting, The Dream, and the late father of batik painting Datuk Chuah Thean Teng’s unusual batik work, Two Cockerels and a Hen.

Henry Butcher Malaysia Group honorary chairman Tan Sri Kamal Hashim said Penang had produced some of Malaysia’s finest pioneers and veteran artists back in the early 1900s.

“It is only natural that we host The Prelude exhibition here following its official opening in Kuala Lumpur recently,” he said.

The exhibition will feature 23 artworks including masterpieces by late veterans like Yong Mun Sen, Datuk Mohd. Hoessein Enas, Khaw Sia, Kuo Ju Ping and Lee Cheng Yong.

Yong’s Bridge, a rare 1948 watercolour painting of two women balancing baskets on their heads on a rickety makeshift bridge, was believed to depict new threats from the communist insurgency that followed the upheaval of the Japanese Occupation.

Coffee Shop (1963) by Kuo is a well- composed oil on canvas work portraying the unique hawker culture of Penangites while Khaw’s famous life-like orchid paintings will be sold as twin renditions of the same size, namely the White Orchids I and White Orchids II.

The Prelude exhibition will run until July 7 from 10am to 6pm.

An auction featuring some 60 to 80 artworks including those exhibited at The Prelude, will be held on Aug 8 at Wisma Bentley Music, Mutiara Damansara, Kuala Lumpur.

Kamal said although the works comprised mainly those by pioneers and veterans, a good selection of contemporary paintings by younger artists would also be put on the block.

Henry Butcher’s auction of modern and contemporary art collection is arguably Malaysia’s largest and first professionally run auction dedicated exclusively to Malaysian art.

-News courtesy of The Star-