With apologies to Andrew Marvell and his poem, To His Coy Mistress: The beach’s a fine and private place, But none I think do there embrace. The title is intriguing: What are the figures doing on the beach, how many, and the time of day? If there are figures, they seem camouflaged, and fused or flushed together in some kind of amorous clinch, or they could be rollicking in the sand. The beach is an ideal place to ‘pak tho’ (having a lover’s chat), and when in a more exuberant mood, dance by the light of the silvery moon. There is a sense of open and free expanse of the Great Outdoor, with the tiered horizontal stretch unravelling a malingering mood. The lovers, if that is what they are, are rapt in their own world in the soothing breeze and with the gentle lapping of the waves. Movement is animated by the parallel bands of delicate lines in sinuous rhythm and sometimes as a decorative veneer in various colours. Such a congenial place and atmosphere have hosted many a romance that eventually lead to the aisle. The beach is a fine venue for an arts village, as Datuk Ibrahim Hussein himself had organised three festivals on his own. Besides the Asian Arts Festival at the Club Med venues in Bali, Indonesia, in 1987, and in Cherating, Pahang, in 1988, there is also the first Langkawi International Art Festival held at his museum in 2000. Blinded in one eye (right) when small, the legendary Datuk Ibrahim Hussein is a Malaysian art phenomenon with international accolades in Japan (Japan Foundation Cultural Award, 1981), Venezuela (Order of Andres Bello, 1993) and Chile (Order of Bernardo O. Higgins). He was also a recipient of the highly prestigious World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award (1997). In 1986, Ib, as he is popularly known, was accorded a Retrospective by the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur. He is the first Malaysian to have taken part in the Venice Biennale, under the aegis of the Smithsonian Institute. His other high points were when he exhibited with Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali at the Dhalat Abdulla Al-Salam Gallery in Kuwait in 1977, and when was awarded at the Monte Carlo exhibition. Ib had his art tutelage in Britain, first at the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting (1963) and then the Royal Academy (1966). Two American scholarships followed – Fulbright (1967) and the John D. Rockefeller III Fund fellowship (1967-1968). In New York, he was given back-to-back solo exhibitions at the Newsweek Gallery and the Galerie Internationale in New York, which won acclaim from the critics.