Modernist supreme
Khalil Ibrahim, a prominent batik artist, bows out.
KHALIL Ibrahim, a prominent modernist artist best known for his batik paintings, landscapes, portraits and abstracts that explored a deeply authentic Malaysian identity and vision, has died. He was 84.
He died of natural causes at Universiti Malaya Medical Centre in Petaling Jaya on May 15.
Khalil, born in Kubang Kerian in Kelantan in 1934, began as a self-taught artist, who painted with his left hand.
In the 1950s, he painted regularly while working as a school teacher in Kelantan and Pahang, before he was awarded a Pahang state scholarship to study art in London. In 1960, Khalil enrolled at St Martin’s School of Art in London, where he received his formal art training and developed his artistic style. He also travelled across Europe during those student years, expanding his creative outlook.
In 1966, he returned to Malaysia, where he taught art briefly in a school in Temerloh, Pahang, before moving to KL in 1968 and embarking on an illustrious career spanning more than 50 years.
Khalil’s early exhibitions – London Years and Malaysian Batiks – were held at the National Art Gallery (now known as National Visual Arts Gallery) in KL in 1968. He also exhibited two shows at Samat Art Gallery, owned by Frank Sullivan, the first director of the National Art Gallery.
These early shows built his name among collectors, art institutions and fellow artist peers in Malaysia and the region.
In the late 1960s a visit to Bali broadened Khalil’s awareness for Indonesian art and culture.
In many ways, this visit prompted him to also experiment with batik paintings, which reflected and reminded him of the richness of his own East Coast heritage. His series of works From Kelantan To Sanur during this period led to many iconic paintings.
Batik was his longstanding creative medium which he used right into the 1980s. Apart from batik, Khalil’s career has also been filled by several striking and evocative landscape and abstract works, many of which captivated and influenced the local art scene for generations.
His skill, with various mediums, including acrylic, oil, watercolour and pen/ink, was first viewed as a whole during his retrospective show A Continued Dialogue at Galeri Petronas in 2004.
In 2012, Khalil suffered a stroke, which made it difficult for him to paint with his left hand again. Rather than give up, or rest on his laurels, the strong-willed artist trained himself to paint with his right hand. Wheelchair bound, Khalil kept himself going with art.
In 2015, KL Lifestyle Art Space gallery paid a heartfelt tribute to Khalil’s long career with The Art Journey exhibition and a retrospective publication, which exhibited his crucial works loaned from the artist and private collections.
A group show Love Me In My Batik: Modern Batik Art From Malaysia And Beyond at Ilham Gallery in KL in 2016 also presented Khalil’s works to a contemporary audience. His artworks have been featured in numerous international and local exhibitions and publications and are part of international private and public collections, most notably, the National Visual Arts Gallery and Galeri Petronas.