Nirmala’s last wish

By Ooi Kok Chuen

July 2010 PENANG PALETTE
main image
Nirmala looking at an unfinished work in her studio. Notice the confident application of pigments and the strong streaks.
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Nirmala Dutt Shanmughalingam, one of Malaysia’s most noted – and controversial – artists struggles to complete her last paintings. Suffering from a series of physical ailments, including the threat of total blindness, she paints her final works in praise of her God.Above: A 1986 work from Nirmala’s Damai series on the pity of war, The Pity War Distilled. Ink drawing of a bag lady in Brussels in 1995.With vision failing in her only good eye, Nirmala Dutt Shanmughalingam is in...

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Ooi Kok Chuen

is an art-writer and journalist, and the author of MAHSURI: A Legend Reborn (Ooi Peeps Publishing), an adult contemporary fantasy “movel” (a novel conceived as a mock movie) spun from a local legend.

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