Malaysian Artist

Peter Harris Memorial Exhibition 2009 Paintings

Peter Harris (biodata) was born in Bristol, England in 1923. He came to Malaya in 1951 after being appointed the art superintendent in the Federation of Malaya.

The Wednesday Art Group, founded by Peter in 1952, counted amongst its members Patrick Ng Kah Onn (1932 – 1989), Syed Ahmad Jamal (now Datuk, born in 1929), Dzulkifli Buyong (1948 – 2004), Cheong Lai Tong (born in 1932), Jolly Koh (now Dr, born in 1941), who are all now regarded as important Malaysian artists. Most of the early members received no formal art training, but Peter encouraged their passion and interest in art.

He decided to leave Malaya in 1960 after having groomed some successors. Before he left, he was honoured by the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur to be the first artist to hold a Retrospective exhibition at the gallery. On the way home, he drifted through Penang, and landed in Thailand. Then he went to Cambodia, Vietnam, and finally boarded a ship to Hong Kong, Japan, Hawaii, America and back to England.

He was happily surprised in 1962 to receive an offer to oversee art education in Sabah and witnessed the formation of Malaysia in 1963. He left Sabah in 1967, not realising that he had become an icon in the history of Malaysian.

In 1996, Galeriwan (now defunct) hosted an exhibition for the Wednesday Art Group – Then and Now exhibition which included paintings by the group, including Peter Harris. Galeriwan gave him a solo exhibition in 1997. His next solo exhibition was held at The Art Gallery, Penang in January 2001.

The paintings featured in this memorial exhibition at Art Salon @ SENI from June to August 2009 include many pastels of his studies of people that he drew while he was stationed in Malaya. However, also included are two paintings he did in Cambodia as well as some later works which he did in UK, and some which were done after his last visit to Malaysia in 2001.

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