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. ‘Pago-Pago, Pesakih Bali’ was realized in Bali, Indonesia, an extension of Latiff’s ‘wanderings’ around the Malay Archipelago after his fruitful sojourns in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. It appears subdued in terms of its hues and indefinite strokes. The opaqueness of the darkest blue seems to set a morbid backdrop simultaneously witnessing the breaking of the quivering strokes; a setting which Latiff had designed: a looming isolation of the cracking energy of destruction.
