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Peter Barton Harold Harris, seminal founder of the Wednesday Art Group (WAG) in 1952, passed away on 14 March 2009. The Wednesday Art Group counted amongst its members Patrick Ng Kah Onn, Dzulkifli Buyong, Cheong Lai Tong as well as Syed Ahmad Jamal, who are modern art pioneers in Malaya.
Reading an old WAG catalogue/annual report I found in a musty corner of the VWFA resource room library, I was struck by the humility of their tone. Most of the early members received no formal art training, their unschooled approach to art was driven purely by passion and personal interest. This much was emphasised in the written literature.
People dropped in and out of Peter Harris’s wednesday art classes, many were dabblers but of those that stuck around, a number of them have become recognisable figures in the history of modern art in Malaysia. Tells us quite a bit about what can transpire with a lot of zeal thrown in, doesn’t it?
Click here for tribute article written by Ooi Kok Chuen.
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i think this was the dude who introduced that vegetables-printing exercise we all did in school. stuff of legends!
oh my god! Waaaayyy coool. This is a real gem, man! I always love those. My favourite is lotus roots!
i think this was the dude who introduced that vegetables-printing exercise we all did in school.
How do you know this delicious bit of trivia???
We should do a post on all the things we had to do in art class in school… remember:
– The bean decorated jar: cover a jar with a layer of plasticine, then stick all kinds of beans on it to make a pattern
– The candle ‘batik’: drip wax onto a sheet of paper, cover with paint, then drip more wax and then another layer of paint, and so on until you’re happy. Scrape off the wax, voila!
– The scratchy drawing: colour a sheet of paper with random colours of wax crayon. Then colour the the coloured paper entirely with black oil pastel crayon. Scratch the oil pastel layer with a sharp instrument to make a drawing that reveals the colours beneath.
Memmmmmories.
something i learned from my art history teacher. she had a drawing of a cow he did. very iconic cow. always smiling. big eyes. domr might have seen it in kbsm textbooks.
Hi all,
Art Salon @ Seni (managed by The Art Gallery) will be organising a memorial exhibition as a tribute to Peter Harris, who became an icon in the annals of Malaysian Art
The duration of his exhibition is from 10 June to 28 August 2009, from 10am-6pm daily (except for public holidays)
Any inquiries, please contact 012-6041434.