FIFTY YEARS ago, a band of young hopefuls took the almost non-existent Malaysian art world by surprise.
Not many of the ‘Grup’ who exhibited in 1967 are still pulling off any surprises. There was sadness and shock when a couple of them died a few years ago, somewhat comparatively early considering that none of them had actually lived the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle that might have brought about their premature demise.
The feistiest of the group keeps himself going on a regimen of hard work and excoriating commentary. Jolly Koh is now 76, with a suitably titled exhibition to prove it. Jolly Koh @ 76 comprises his more recent work, and there is plenty of it. Some of the paintings are so recent they didn’t make it into the massive retrospective book that must surely be the most colourful art publication ever to commemorate a Malaysian artist. It is colourful apart from the cover, which has an elegantly textured black finish adorned with those few simple words in gold: Jolly Koh @ 76.
This is an artist who has always understood how to make a splash. Not in the David Hockney manner of a few insipid colours that try to capture the easygoing spirit of California. Jolly’s world is rather more vibrant than that, although the viewer is never quite sure what world he is looking at.
Paintings such as Mountainscape or By the Shore offer some clues, but these titles are more of a distraction than a description. They are explosions of colour that come from a realm far from Hockney’s faceless suburban California of the 1960s. Jolly’s imagination is a place of volcanic intensity. This is no doubt aided by a familiarity with paint that puts him on a different plane from most other artists, especially the conceptual of the species.
Paint is a medium in which he is so confident; there is nothing much he can’t do with it. I sometimes wonder how he would cope with the more recent art media of animal carcasses or vegetables placed in unexpected parts of the human body!
LOVE OF PAINT
Altogether better for this artist to continue on the path that he has travelled for more than six decades. Whilst Italian Renaissance artists would get together and debate which was greater — sculpture or painting — there is only one medium for Jolly Koh. Paint is at the pinnacle of his vision. Music seems to come a close second.
“I have always just wanted to paint,” he reports. He has given a lot of attention to the subject. His writing about art hasn’t always won him friends but it has gained him some respect from critics and admirers alike. The thought he has put into his disquisitions is not something to be ignored, but Dr Koh the craftsman is as much a part of the artist as the philosopher is.
Confides Koh: “I use acrylic; it’s like watercolour. My technique is varied. I’ve been pouring in the last 10 years, and finishing it with a brush. Acrylic with oil on top allows me to fine tune. I use a calligraphy brush — traditionally Chinese. Variety is important to me. I would be bored out of my mind otherwise. Other artists tend to prefer oil, which was invented for translucency, unlike fresco, which is opaque. I can get transparency with acrylic.”
He can get a lot more than transparency. The impression goes far beyond this asset to assume the quality he values most highly in his own work. “It’s highly romantic,” is his simple assessment. He adds: “My art has one quality — it is highly romantic. My painting conveys romanticism in the manner of Turner or Caspar David Friedrich. There’s nothing expressionistic about it.”
NEW ADVENTURE
The passion continues to burn bright when relating his favoured musical analogies.“It’s more like Beethoven, Ravel or Verdi. Or perhaps a dark and brooding Wagner. It brings out the romanticism that exists in Malaysia. Dondang sayang and keroncong are very much in that category for me. At 14 my parents would bring in musicians to our home in Heeren Street. I am not afraid of sentimentality,” shares Koh.
Jolly Koh is seemingly not afraid of anything, including the opinions of others. He paints for himself, and fortunately his many followers share his taste. In addition to pleasure, there is a growing quantity of charm. Maybe he’s softening with age, but there is something of an impish sense of humour showing through the bravura. Who could fail to be captivated by the monkey (presumably the super-heroic Sun Wukong from Journey to the West) in Buddha’s Hand?
For the latest exhibition, there is a new adventure for the artist; monochrome works from the master practitioner of the full-colour palette. More than that, he asserts that they are “political”. I have to confess that their political content eludes me. They certainly aren’t anything like an installation made from discarded party bunting. What they are is visually enthralling. He hasn’t lost the sheer pleasure of paint that he has described throughout his career.
Having just been to an exhibition at London’s National Gallery with the title Monochrome: Painting in Black and White, I’d say it’s a direction every artist should take. The exhibition is being promoted by a poster of a naked odalisque in black-and-white by the 19th century French artist, Ingres. It is so much more expressive of the delicate volumes of voluptuousness, Ingres makes the more famous colour version seem crass and garish. Whether it’s at the National Gallery or the White Box @ Publika, it’s worth seeing what a paragon of painting can accomplish — with or without colour.
‘Jolly Koh @ 76’.
Where: White Box @ Publika, KL
When: Until Dec 17