EXHIBITION - LEVEL 5
Dato’ Hoessein Enas
PICTURING THE NATION - LEVEL 5
Hoessein Enas: From His Personal Collection
This section brings together works from artist Dato Hoessein Enas’ personal collection to tell the larger-than-life story of a man, whose artistic life is twinned to the birth of a new country, and whose practice is situated within the hopes and dreams of this new multicultural nation.
Hoessein Enas played a significant role in the broader cultural development of this new nation. He was a founding member of Angkatan Pelukis Semenanjung (Malaysia Painters Front). He was also at different periods of his life appointed as an officer in charge of Aboriginal Affairs with the Museum Department and later as Chief of Graphic and Design with the newly established television service of national public broadcast Radio Television Malaysia (RTM).
When commissioned by Shell Ltd. to produce a series of drawings and paintings to commemorate Malaysia’s formation in 1963, he was one of the first artists to travel the length and breadth of the country.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Dato Hoessein Enas (1924 - 1995) came to Malaya from Indonesia in 1947. His artistic stature as a portrait painter in the academic realist style grew in prominence following Malaya’s independence in 1957 and the formation of Malaysia in 1963, a country he came to identify as home. In 1956, he was the founding member of Angkatan Pelukis Semenanjung which was an important force in the development of artistic activity in the country around Independence. In 1963, The Shell Group of Companies in Malaysia commissioned him to travel throughout the country to produce a series of drawings and paintings to commemorate the formation of Malaysia. In 1990, Hoessein Enas was conferred ‘Royal Portrait Painter’ status by HRH The Sultan of Selangor.
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