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Lot description
It could be a wind that blew no good, and given the pioneer artist Abdullah Ariff’s command of the local landscapes, especially the outer flung kampung, it’s customary to take the trite cliché that Abdullah’s intention was purely artistic, in conjuring a scene of trees and vegetation whipped mercilessly in certain direction by a “blustery wind” with a potential path out being obscured or even obstructed. After all, Abdullah was also a politician, from Umno, of the ruling coalition of the day, and he had also done cartoons that were politically inclined, for the Straits Echo newspaper. Still, it’s nicer to appreciate Abdullah’s work, whether watercolour or oil, just for its pristine technique and composition, than to surmise at some form of poetic empathy linking the weather with some pressing issues, and what? Truth is, Abdullah didn’t as a habit present just a calm scene, the composition often alluding to something untoward or sinister. That is the artistic licence. Abdullah Ariff was a City Councillor in Penang in 1955-1957 (Jelutong district), and had two short roads in Air Itam named after him. As a pioneer artist, his most prominent credential was a U.S. solo at the Mint Museum and the Ownbey Hall in Charlotte in 1954 and the Malayan Embassy in Washington in 1955. In 1955, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art (FRSA) England. Self-taught, he taught at the Anglo-Chinese School (later Methodist Boys School), Penang, for six years. He set up his advertising company, Ariff Advertising, in 1955, and was somehow included among the Penang Impressionist expatriate artists in the 1930s. From 1945-1947, he also contributed cartoons for the Straits Echo newspaper.