Abdul Latiff Mohidin

Born:        1938

Education:　1960 – Academy of Fine Arts, Berlin

　　　          1968 – Atelier La Courriere, Paris

　　　　      1970 – Pratt Graphic Centre, New York

　　Abdul Latiff Mohidin was trained in an art college in Berlin, Germany during the Sixties. He was influenced by German Expressionism. This early work by the artist belongs to the Pago-Pago series that the artist has become famous for. Abdul Latiff is also an accomplished print-maker and this work affords us a rare glimpse of his woodcut printing skills that he had mastered while in Germany. He is also a noted poet and has published several anthologies of his poems in the Malay language.

　　 Abdul Latiff’s Pago Pago series of paintings and sculptures were inspired by the tribal arts of the Oceanic region of the Pacific area that he had been personally exposed to at the Berlin Museum of Anthropology and Oceanic Art. Hence, the name Pago Pago given to this series of art works. The work depicts vertical totem-like forms made up of flattened organic shapes set against a flattened ground. A stablising central circular shape, placed at the centre of the work, adds a contrast element to the design and draws the viewer’s eye toward it. The number of colours, rendered flat as a result of the woodcut printing process, are limited and are contrasted with the richly textured grey tonalities of the organic forms. The organic shapes are cleverly set up against each other to allow for a suggestion of precarious balance and enhance the surface tension. The overall effect of the work is the evocation of “primitive” tribal essences and energies which was one of the main features of the Pago Pago series.