There is a similar piece with a similar title in off-red monochrome and measuring 26cm x 18cm, which is illustrated in the book, LINE: Latiff Mohidin, From Point To Point (Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, English-translated, 1993). It may be just a melange of “strokes, scratches and scrawls” and with a dash of wit, probably because of the inherent diamond-shaped patterns, it gets the moniker, harlequin, and a Kelantan one at that, probably a stylised reference in the Makyong or Menora traditional dramas, which are now suppressed. The Pago-Pago series is derived from the anatomical architecture of trees or plants, or the root tendrils of ruins from ancient buildings.
A national treasure in paint, print (printmaking), bronze (sculpture) and letters (poet, essayist and translator in three languages – Malay, English and German), Latiff Mohidin hit a career peak in art when his celebrated Pago-Pago Series (1960-1969) headlined a three-month exhibition at the prestigious Pompidou Centre in Paris from February to May 2018. Ilham Gallery presented the same celebrated series from August to December, that same year. National Gallery Singapore presented Latiff Mohidin: Pago Pago from March to September 2020.
He was awarded a major Retrospective by the National Art Gallery in December 2012 to June 2013, his second. He studied at the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunst in West Berlin. His international awards included the John D. Rockefeller III Fellowship to study at Pratt Institute (1965) and the French scholarship to study printmaking at the Atelier Lacouriere-Frelaut in Paris (1969). Locally, he won 2nd Prize (Graphics) in the 1968 Salon Malaysia. In literature, his awards included the SEA Write Award (1984 and 1986) and the Malaysian Literary Awards from 1972 to 1976.