This month, we feature artwork from Penang State Art Gallery’s permanent collection.
By Dr Sarena Abdullah
Zakariah Noor, Agricultural Produce Market, 1993, Oil on Canvas, 40 x 50 cm.
Image courtesy of Penang State Art Gallery
Zakariah Noor (b. 1924, Penang) was one of the earliest members of the now-defunct Wednesday Art Group (WAG) and a member of the Selangor Art Society. He is also one of the founders and the current Vice President of Angkatan Pelukis SeMalaysia (APS). A self-taught artist, participation in these local art associations allowed Zakariah to learn painting, albeit informally, from both Peter Harris (WAG) and Mohd Hoessein Enas (APS). Some of his early works, such as Mandi Safar (1960), are in the National Art Gallery’s collection.
Unlike Mandi Safar, Agricultural Produce Market (1993) is among the works that indicate Zakariah’s return to a more realistic and conventional style. In this work, the artist paints a market scene in a rural area with the formulaic foreground, middle ground, and background conceptualisation. We observe at the bottom left of the painting five Malay ladies in their baju kurung and selendang. Two ladies squat close to their local produce such as nangka, durian, mango, and bananas, all properly arranged in wicker baskets. The lady in red is making payment for her produce while the other two are still looking around the market. At the back of the composition, with a more subdued hue, we observe a few figures sitting or squatting under their umbrellas.
An oddity of this composition is the male figure on the right, as part of the middle ground, who seems to be holding or touching the hand of the lady in the titian-coloured selendang. Is he making a payment for the items that he purchased or is he speaking with his wife? What exactly is the casual scenario that the artist tries to present here? Only Zakariah Noor has the answer.
Sarena Abdullah, Ph.D is an art historian at the School of the Arts, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). She is the author of Malaysian Art since the 1990s: Postmodern Situation (2018) and co-editor of a publication of Southeast Asian Art entitled Ambitious Alignments: New Histories of Southeast Asian Art 1945-1990 (2018). She has written extensively about Malaysian art on various academic journals and platforms.