An unusual work for the artist and for the time it was painted in 1964, and for its semi-abstract approach, it was probably done for decorum and with camouflage. A lithe naked figure, back to viewer, in the forefront, is wedged against a dark ambiguous blob which could represent one or two figures, presumably larger, or even one in animal costume in some kind of ritual dance. Under a faint light emanating from top, the figures could be dancing in unison or involved in some kind of ritualistic gestures. Sparing broken smudges from the horizontal sweep of black in the lower background offer a fascinating contrast to the denser dark hues in the top half. Patrick Ng Kah Onn is best remembered for the 1959 oil on board, Spirit of the Earth, Sky and Water, an iconic masterpiece in Malaysian art. This seemingly matured composition suggests it might have been done when Patrick Ng had already enrolled at the Hammersmith College in London in 1964, under a Sino-British scholarship. Patrick Ng was one of the superstars in the informal art coterie, Wednesday Art Group, founded in 1952 by his mentor Peter Harris (1923-2009). He furthered his studies at Wimbledon and Southlands College of Art (1966-1968), majoring in Fine Art and Textiles. After his studies, he stayed put in England and taught at his alma mater until 1972. Noteworthy is Dr Simon Soon’s comments on Patrick Ng’s nudes of “brown bodies” (Frank Sullivan, a.k.a. Chermin’s words) albeit in batik paintings in his paper, Fabric and the Fabrication of a Queer Narrative (The Batik Paintings of Patrick Ng Kah Onn): The nude bodies of Patrick Ng’s paintings are shaded to suggest volumetric space, perhaps drawing on the conventions of European figuration.” In Patrick Ng’s first solo at the Kuala Lumpur British Council in March 1963, he showed 50 watercolours, pastels, wax, charcoal and Indian ink, works. They were influenced by Indian masters M.F. Hussain and Jamini Roy from his visit to India in January the same year. He won the top prize of RM3,000 in an art competition in Manila, the Philippines, with his work, Batik Malaysia. Patrick Ng, who died of liver cancer in London in 1989, is believed to have returned for a short visit to Malaysia only once, in 1970. In an interview with Ooi Kok Chuen, Peter Cocquerel said that Patrick Ng later developed a passion for music, opera and films. He said: “He changed from painting towards music and the moving image.”