As printmaker Juhari Said noted, in his research into Latiff Mohidin’s graphic works, being railroaded into New York at the Pratt Graphic Centre (1970), Latiff developed a new mindset, which resulted in a seismic shift in his artistic style and production from the organic growth of his Pago-Pago to a phalanx of lines and geometric shapes. “That was the end of his Pago-Pago phase,” Juhari avers. Latiff had imbibed the best of printmaking in the German tradition (Berlin), the French touches (Atelier LaCouriere) and the American contemporaneity.
A national treasure in paint, print (printmaking), bronze / stainless steel (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. 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.