Abdul Samad Said Sold at Auction Prices

ABDUL SAMAD SAID (b. 1935) PUSAR MASA 04, 2009, Ink on paper

The wheels of life go round and round in the whirligig of time (Pusar Masa) as all living beings and natural things are mere flotsams carried in a cyclonic cycle in this lyrical flourish by poet-novelist-artist Datuk A. Samad Said, a literary paragon but not so recognized in art. Yet, Samad was into art before many others of his more illustrious artist friends, having been trained by the Singaporean watercolourist, T. Mahat, during the 1950s, while befriending great artists like the Indonesian portrait icon Basuki Abdullah. In stark monochrome, the frittered forms more in a diagonal trajectory tell of the vulnerability of man, and an almost insurmountable struggle. Whereas in the past, he used ink to pen his thoughts on issues of life and literature, now the monochrome takes new visual imagery and forms. As Samad is well versed with the Qu’ran, at times, they resemble frittered Qu’ranic calligraphy too.The reluctant artist first made his debut in a solo at Galeri Petronas in June-July 2007 before staging two other solos at the Selangor-Federal Territory Chinese Assembly Hall and Xin Art Space (Black and Red), both in Kuala Lumpur, in October 2014 and March 2015 respectively. His novel, Salina (1961), is a literary classic, while he has also written great poems and plays like Lantai T. Pinkie. Samad was also a journalist and now, a prominent social activist. He was a winner of the prestigious Southeast Asia Write Award in 1979, and was given the title of Sasterawan Negara (1986) and Sasterawan Nusantara (1999) besides Pejuang Sastera (1976). He was the first non-Chinese to be awarded the Lim Lian Geok Spirit Award. For his great contributions, he was awarded a ‘Dato’ title by the Malacca Governor in 1997.