In 1988, his Ripples caused a sensation when shown in the Contemporary Paintings of Malaysia exhibition at the Asia-Pacific Museum in Pasadena, California, while another blue work infused with the Water Element, Kamasari (1992) was shown in the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1997, where Ib, as the artist is popularly known, was awarded the Crystal Award — a holy grail of awards for the world’s great creative icons. This work is imbued with the spirit of David Hockney’s California dreaming of cobalt-blue and ultra-marine Pop Art basking-in-the-sun swimming-pool decadence like the iconic works, A Bigger Splash and Portrait Of An Artist (Pool With Two Figures), and also reminiscent of Hokusai’s The Great Wave of Kanagawa. While keeping to his signature rhythmic lines, much more staccato and static for a calcified underwater silence, Ib chose to play on a blanket of miasma mist of bluish hues, mysterious with the odd light filtering here and there, a submarine fugue, tranquil and nondescript. Algae, weeds, vegetation or other micro-organisms may be suggested. In imaginative overdrive, one might espy an anatomical fragment of a figure perhaps or glimmers of a passing sea creature, either emerging or receding. It’s a painting of no bubbles, like a holding of one’s breath in encapsulating a scene. It is up to the viewer to interpret. Some may see it as horses galloping through the thick lush grassland / bushes. Such is life, filled with challenges and obstacles, but one will overcome them, striving towards excellence. "I am always driven by movement. Every living thing moves, moving in space and in time," Datuk Ibrahim was quoted as saying. Datuk Ibrahim Hussein is an extraordinarily gifted artist impacting the world with prestigious awards such as the Crystal Award (presented by the World Economic Forum, 1997), the Order of Andres Bello of Venezuela (1993), the Order of Bernardo Higgins of Chile (1996), the Japan Foundation Cultural Award (1988) and Malaysia’s Anugerah Tokoh Terbilang (2007) and is the only artist conferred the Datuk title thrice. Datuk Ibrahim’s tripartite exhibition that also featured Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali, in Kuwait in 1977 was a game-changer for him. He was the first Malaysian in the Venice Biennale (1970), through the aegis of the American Smithsonian Institute workshop. Datuk Ibrahim was accorded a Retrospective by the National Art Gallery in 1986. He set up the Ibrahim Hussein Museum and celebrated it by organising the Langkawi International Festival of Arts in 2000. He also organised the Club Mediterranee Asian Arts Festival in Bali (Indonesia, 1987) and Cherating (Pahang, 1988). His art tutelage was in the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting (1959-1963) and the Royal Academy in London (1963-1966). A double scholarship of Fulbright and John D. Rockefeller II Fund in the 1960s saw him in the United States, with two solos in New York to boot.