Artworks

 

Anuar Rashid's Journey

Anuar Rashid's achievement :
 
1958 : Born in Langgar, Alor Setar, Kedah.
         :Received secondary education at Kolej Sultan Abdul Hamid, Alor Setar, Kedah.

1974 : National School Art Competition, Kuala Lumpur won 2nd place.

1975 : Join ITM, Dungun, Terengganu - Pre-diploma in Art & Design.

1976 : Participated in the 'Young Contemporaries' . National Art Gallery.

1978 : Art Exhibition from Local Art Institution, National Art Gallery.
         : One Man Show, Penang State Museum, Penang.

1979 : One Man Show, Alpha Gallery, Singapore.
         : United World College Art Festival, Singapore.
         : One Man Show, JARO, Johore Baharu, Johore.
         : Salam Malaysia, National Art Gallery - Minor Award.
         : Graduated from Uitm with a Diploma in Fine Art.

1980 : Group exhibition, Anak Alam, Kuala Lumpur.
         : Contemporary Asian Art Show, Fukuoka, Japan.
         : Group exhibition, Anak Alam, Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur.

1981 : Treatment of Local Landscape in Contemporary Malaysian Art 1930-81, National Art Gallery.
         : 25 years of Malaysian Art, National Art Gallery.

1982 : One Man Show, Cehtro Artistico Argentino, Ferrara, Italia.
         : One Man Show, Holmes Place Centre, London UK.
         : Group exhibition, Anak Alam, Alliance Francaise, Kuala Lumpur.
         : One Man Show 'Wind, Water & Fire', Hotel Equatorial, Kuala Lumpur.

1983 : ASEAN, Mobile Exhibition of Paintings & Photographs, National Art Gallery.

1984 : Invited by the Council of Culture & Socialist Education Of Socialist Republic of Romania.
         : One Man Show Sala Cultural & Scientifika Roman Soviet, Bucharest, Socialist Republic of
           Romania.
         : Group Exhibition, Fiera di Argenta, Ferrara, Italia.
         : Visited Switzerland on a grant by the official Swiss Cultural organization, Stiftung Pro
            Helvatia.
         : Awarded Fellowship by the French government to work in Paris at the Ecole Nationale Des
           Beaux Arts, Paris, France.

1985 : Participated in the International Art Festival at the Artist Colony of Prilep, Macedonia,
           Sociolist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

1986 : Guest artist at the Josip Broz Tito Gallery for the Non Aligned Nation, Titograd, Socialist
           Federal Republic of Yugoslovia.
         : Awarded the 'Starr Foundation Fellowship Program' by the Asian Cultural Council of New
           York to visit the United States of America.

1987 : 2nd Non Aligned Summit Art Show, Harare, Zimbabwe.

1989 : Contemporary Paintings of Malaysia, Pacific Asia Museum Pasadena, California, USA.

1994 : Vision & Idea, Melihat Kembali Seni Moden Malaysia, National Art Gallery.

2001 : Rupa Malaysia, Meninjau Senilukis Moden Malaysia, National Art Gallery.

2003 : 45 @ 45, National Art Gallery.   

Anuar Rashid's Profile

With one of his art.

From the early beginning of his career, Anuar Rashid has been a maverick. At a tender age of 20 years old, through his "Birth of Inderaputera" (1978) #31, Syed Ahmad Jamal, then the director of National Art Gallery, declared him as "the new sensation of the Malaysian Art scene, perhaps its brightest star yet". A radical and an independent, Anuar joined Anak Alam colony in 1978 after graduating from Uitm because he was persuaded by its communal spirit and comradeship. After a succesful solo exhibition "Wind, Water & Fire (1983) in Kuala Lumpur, he left for Europe on several grants and fellowships. He also made unofficial visits to the then communist Romania and Yugoslavia, and briefly stayed in the communist-dominated northern Italy. On his return to Malaysia in 1986, he completed a mural for Central Market titled "farewell" , and then retreated reclusively to his home state Kedah. There, he spent most of his time in mosques and suraus, designing and constructing 'mehrab' and 'nuqarnas'. Twenty years has passed before he eventually returned to Central Market for the Tiga Alam Exhibition. 

For Anuar, art is nothing less than an adventure. It is the only adventure because it is total, involving the body, mind, senses, and mood. What makes his works extraordinary are the intoxicating dynamics of movement that resonate with limitless energy, generating a field of forces that approach infinity. They at once compose and decompose, being simultaneously negentropic and entropic. Through his works, Anuar stripped matter of its illusory stillness, revealing the storm of motion within it. 

Anuar avoids philosophizing art. He intentionally cultivated a passion for all things 'not art' ; exploring physics and logic. He sees no separation between his life and his work. Born into a religious environment, Anuar journeyed as a young adult into atheism and extreme left ideologies to refute notions of perceived 'truth' , only to re-discover the pervasiveness of the existence of the 'Absolute'.

Anuar is descendental; the former evokes higher consciousness and the latter the unconscious. But for all their difference, 'formal' Mustapha, and 'informal' Anuar, their paintings have something in common: not only their evocation of the 'infinite', but the intention to restore the sense of enigma and singularity of existence last in everyday life. 

By : Nani Kahar, Currator, labDNA.