Legacy of an artist who captured his hometown Klang's life and soul

Ilham Gallery’s reopening exhibition Kok Yew Puah: Portrait Of A Malaysian Artist welcomes visitors with an interesting premise: this is the work of a man who chose to become an artist twice.

In the 1970s, the Australian-trained Puah, as he was familiarly known, started out as a hard-edge abstract printmaker.

After putting art on the back burner for a few years while running the family business, he returned to the art scene as a figurative painter in the 1980s and 1990s.

Puah died in 1999 at the age of 51.

“From all accounts, he was very unhappy giving up his artistic practice and struggled with being a businessman – he was tasked with setting up and running a factory, which produced the famous Life chilli sauce provided in KFC restaurants.

“He certainly wasn’t alone in not being able to pursue a career as an artist. Very few art graduates could at that time, or can nowadays. What was probably more dramatic or interesting was his determined return to art-making,” says Beverly Yong.

Puah’s 'Two Important Men' (acrylic on canvas, 1993) (left) and' Self Portrait In Deep Thought' (acrylic on canvas, 1993) at the exhibition. Photo: The Star/Azlina Abdullah

Kok Yew Puah: Portrait Of A Malaysian Artist, curated by Yong and Ilham Gallery director Rahel Joseph, revisits how this unassuming Klang, Selangor-born artist tapped into the nation's shifting moods in the 1980s and 1990s, and how his paintings portraying everyday people, life and societal changes in his neighbourhood struck a chord with art lovers.

“When he moved from printmaking to painting in the mid-1980s, he was among the few artists who chose the portraiture of others as a central subject during this time.

"He seemed to have a special gift for empathy and openness towards people, no matter their background, and he was also interested in what he saw as a South-East Asian movement towards realism, and local subject matter and aesthetics,” says Rahel.

In many of his paintings, Puah used himself, his family and friends as models. His use of familiar visual cues in the landscape, architecture and attire, help to identify these figures as “Malaysians”.

A selection of Puah’s studies to give viewers a broader look at his practice. Photo: The Star/Azlina Abdullah

“I think his paintings deliberately get you to think about stereotypes of people but that they also make you think again about why you see those stereotypes. We recognise his subjects as ‘Malaysians’ not because of what they look like, but because of ‘where’ they are and how they fit there – in front of an Indian temple, a traditional Malay house, a Chinese shop front, sampans and a wooden jetty, against the KL cityscape, along the East Coast shoreline, which we in turn recognise because of ‘cultural props’ like the wau or the trishaw,” says Yong.

She adds that he based his paintings on his immediate reality. For instance, the backdrop of Klang, where Puah was born, and the people close to him, all while paying attention to intimate and specific details of clothing, architecture and the landscape.

Kok Yew Puah's 'Portrait Of Insurance Salesman In Pulau Ketam' (oil on canvas, 1993). Photo: Ilham Gallery

“Anyone who grew up in urban and suburban areas in Malaysia in the 1980s and 1990s or even more recently would probably find the people and the scenes he portrays familiar. In his portraits, there’s often this reference to the family snapshot or what we think of now as a ‘selfie’ in the way he framed his subjects in the camera’s viewfinder, and we all can recognise ourselves ‘behind the camera’, trying to capture that precious moment in time,” she says.

Beneath the surface

Kok Yew Puah: Portrait Of A Malaysian Artist, as a highly-accessible and informative exhibition, includes both his prints and his paintings. An online series of interviews - with people who knew the artist - on Ilham Gallery's YouTube channel is also an added bonus to help the masses to discover this overlooked artist.

Puah returned to Malaysia in 1972 after studying printmaking in Melbourne, Australia.

Later that year, he exhibited his large and bold “hard-edged” abstract silkscreen prints at Samat Art Gallery in KL.

Kok Yew Puah's 'In Front Of An Indian Temple' (acrylic on canvas, 1997) (left) and his study for 'Camera View Of Two Tourists In A Malaysian Town' (watercolour on paper, 1995). Photo: The Star/Azlina Abdullah

From 1974 to 1975, he was a part-time lecturer at ITM (now UiTM) where he taught printmaking.

Yong notes that as an art student and artist in the 1960s and 1970s, Puah’s printmaking practice was non-figurative and non-gestural, rooted in ideas about visual thinking and reception.

“He also experimented briefly with photo silkscreen using images of found and everyday objects. In his ‘realistic’ later paintings, he used hard edges and flat blocks of colour, creating a Pop Art feel, with elements of the everyday coming to the fore. On a deeper level, he seems to have put these earlier conceptual and formal ideas into play with many other ideas about picture-making and painting, also in relation to photography. While his works are immediately relatable, the artistic thinking behind them is rich and complex,” she notes.

Puah's 'Berhenti! (Klangscape Series)/The T-Junction' (acrylic on canvas, 1988). Photo: Ilham Gallery

In 2019, Ilham Gallery held its Chia Yu Chian: Private Lives exhibition, another artist who chronicled Malaysian life.

At first glance, it looks like both Chia and Puah capture “Malaysian” daily scenes and life in their work.

But although they were both inspired by their immediate environments – the Selangor Mansion apartment on Jalan Masjid India in KL where Chia lived became his viewpoint of the city; while Puah painted his Klang neighbourhood, friends and family – their works are quite different in other aspects.

“Puah’s paintings were inclined toward social commentary. His paintings explored environmental damage and city congestion, and the encroachment on nature and the lack of safe public spaces caused by the rapid urbanisation of Klang.

“Unlike Chia’s paintings, Puah’s paintings are not straightforward depictions of real scenes. His picture planes were carefully designed and he drew on strategies from his own earlier printmaking,” says Rahel.

A complete picture

Apart from Puah’s artworks, there are interviews, articles, essays and excerpts of conversations with his family, friends and fellow artists, presented in this Ilham Gallery exhibition.

Visitors can also explore archival material such as photographs, catalogues and drawings, from the family collection.

Puah’s wife Sallyanne Quah and the painter’s 'Portrait Of Anne Puah' (acrylic on canvas, 1994). Photo: The Star/Azlina Abdullah

“This is an important part of the show because it provides context to the artworks as well as reveal some of the processes behind his work including his explorations of photographic imagery and photo-etching,” says Rahel.

She mentions a newspaper article from November 1973 in The Sunday Times, “Artists On The Move To Klang” by Redza Piyadasa, as being particularly informative.

“It gave us a lot of information about Klang as a centre of artistic activity due to the relocation of ITM from Petaling Jaya to Shah Alam, the nascent contemporary art scene in Malaysia during that time, as well as the surprising friendships and connections that existed between artists, writers and thinkers during the 1970s.

“When we started working on this exhibition over a year ago, we had numerous conversations with his fellow artists including Dr Sulaiman Esa, Latiff Mohidin, Lee Kian Seng, Long Thien Shih and Ponirin Amin, among others. Some of these conversations are included in the exhibition,” she says.

Kok Yew Puah's 'Temple Figures' (acrylic on canvas, 1997). Photo: The Star/Azlina Abdullah

Although it has been more than two decades since Puah’s premature death, this exhibition presents a cohesive and lively story of the artist and the world around him, that it feels like he is not all that far away.

Friends and acquaintances of the late artist might find that this exhibition a walk down memory lane. For those who are new to Puah’s wildly colourful world, this is a good starting point to discover his art, life and stories.

“We are so happy to welcome the public back into the space. It feels especially good to be opening with this exhibition which not only tells the story of a Malaysian artist, Kok Yew Puah, but is also the story about the connections we make with our neighbourhoods, our towns and our country. This exhibition is very much a personal portrait of Malaysia captured through the immediate experience of the artist’s life in his hometown Klang,” concludes Rahel.

Kok Yew Puah: Portrait Of A Malaysian Artist at Ilham Gallery in Kuala Lumpur runs till April 3, 2022.

More info here.