Latiff Mohidin, born in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia in 1941 completed his primary education in Singapore. While in Singapore, at an early age, Latiff’s precocity in understanding paintings earned him the nickname, ‘Wonder Boy’. From 1960-1964, Latiff studied art at Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste in Berlin, Germany and did brief residencies in Paris and New York. Inspired by his exploration of Southeast Asia in 1964, Latiff has since produced compelling series of artworks – the result of a synthesis between his European experience and the rediscovery of his homeland. He is also a poet who has published several volumes of poetry. The training in Berlin, taught in a studio, triggered Latiff’s perception on the possibilities of techniques of expression and methodologies. It is evident in ‘Still Life with H’ where Latiff exploratively reduced the specificity of forms and introduced an alternative way in dealing with the placement of subjects and objects in a drawing or painting. This is indeed exemplary of the result of Latiff’s significant sojourn in Germany as he became exposed to the European expressionist aesthetic while still maintaining his interest in primitive art forms.
