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 Guilin series stems from Latiff’s brief sojourn in China. ‘Guilin (6)’, together with ‘Guilin (5)’ and ‘Guilin (7)’, seems to form a series within the overarching series that displays sequential analyses of Latiff’s perception of the mountains. In ‘Guilin (6)’, forms are doubled, strokes of black graphite are iterated and an additional tinge of geenery is shaded. The image appears to be in a transition – from its basic swaying to a moderate vibration of forms attempting to reach its ultimate energy of movement through the prism of Latiff’s emotion.
