Latiff Mohidin's acclaimed 'Pago Pago' show opens in Singapore this March

Latiff posing with two works from his 'Pago Pago' exhibition at Ilham Gallery in KL in August 2018. His well-received show will open at National Gallery Singapore on March 27. Photo: The Star/Shaari Chemat

Some exhibitions are just too good to be kept out of public view. Here's another chance to catch Malaysian modernist painter and poet Latiff Mohiddin's Pago Pago exhibition, which will run at National Gallery Singapore from March 27 to Sept 27.

Latiff Mohidin: Pago Pago, a collaborative show by National Gallery Singapore and the Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, was first staged in the French capital in early 2018. Later, the exhibition was also held at Ilham Gallery in KL from Aug-Dec 2018.

This exhibition Latiff Mohidin: Pago Pago traces a formative period in his practice during the from 1964 to 1969 as he embarked on numerous life-changing journeys across British Malaya as a young boy, to Europe and later South-East Asia.

Latiff coined the phrase “Pago Pago” to evoke the consciousness that emerged through these travels in this region. It was a way of thinking and working that sought to challenge the dominance of Western modernism at the time, and led Latiff to explore a unique approach to form in his painting and poetry.

He often asked himself, “How does one advance the medium of painting, drawing and writing to suit circumstances outside Europe and America?”

Presenting over 80 artworks, the upcoming Pago Pago exhibition in Singapore features sketches, paintings, sculptures, prints and poetry alongside rare photographs from the personal archives of Latiff.

The exhibition also presents a special selection of artworks that Latiff developed between 1949 and 1954 when he lived in Kampong Glam, Singapore.

More info: www.nationalgallery.sg.