Ibrahim Hussein Museum and Cultural Foundation is a modern building which perches dramatically on a cliff overlooking
the Andaman Sea on the hill slopes of Mat Cincang Forest Reserve. It is a magnificent setting for the works of one of
Malaysia's best-known artists - Datuk Ibrahim Hussein.
Ibrahim Hussein Museum and Cultural Foundation was established in 1991. The foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to promote, develop, and advance art and culture. It took Datuk Ibrahim Hussein 11 years of hard work and toil - and RM 5 million - to manifest his dream of "the art museum within the enchanted forest in Langkawi."
Only 13 trees were sacrificed to build his stark modernist sculpture rising out of the lovely grip of the pristine jungle of Gunung
Mat Cincang. To date 25 international artists from 15 countries have pledged their support to the foundation both in the form of contribution of work or expertise, often in exchange for Datuk Ibrahim's own paintings.
Built on the edge of the rainforest, the foundation is a stunning place that is full of light and is a perfect home for the works of the great man himself, as well as other Malaysian artists. The centre is also the living quarters for Datuk Ibrahim Hussein and his wife, Sim.
Datuk Ibrahim Hussein is perhaps the most celebrated Malaysian artist but unlike most celebrities, he enjoys visitors and shares with them the fruits of his creative endeavors at the Ibrahim Hussein Museum and Cultural Foundation.
He calls it the first phase of the project. What he envisages is a living center where international painters, sculptors, musicians and scholars can come to exchange ideas, create, perform and study. Actually, it's something for artists in Malaysia like Robert Redford's Sundance Institute is for young filmmakers in Sundance, Utah.
Ibrahim Hussein is a highly successful and widely recognized artist, perhaps better known outside Malaysia than inside. Chu-Li, the art authority, has written of Datuk Ibrahim's modernistic, abstract work 'His style is futuristic and it is through a distinctive ordering of lines that he expresses differing complexities of form and dimensions.
He has no gallery that displays and sells his works. No agent. If someone hears of him and his work and is interested in acquiring one of his abstract paintings, they must manage to find his home, which doubles as his studio, in Kuala Lumpur. There one of his paintings fetch as much as $170,000.
Those works that are in Malaysia are mainly found in the offices of banks, major corporations and in private collections.
You can spend hours (for a small fee) studying and admiring Datuk Ibrahim's major recent works that use 'printage' -
a mixture of printing and collage as the main medium, as well as dozens of whimsical objects he has created while
'camping out' at the Center. It's really worth your time visiting this living museum in the rainforest.
This gallery showcases not only the artistic talents of Asian, artists like Thawan Ducahnee from Thailand, Made Wianta of Indonesia, Malaysians Hasnul Jamal and Juhairi Siad, but also the wondrous landscape sceneries of Mother Nature.
In the grounds of the gallery, there is a nature walk trail that winds into the Pasir Tengkorak Forest Reserve.
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When I was a young aspiring artist all I ever wanted was the freedom to express myself in the way that I wanted without any expectation from anyone.
I wanted to show the world that art is the most important and unifying force that there is - and that it is a celebration of life that can help nations, races and religions come together as one.
Datuk Ibrahim Hussein
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Ibrahim Hussein Museum and Cultural Foundation is open throughout the year and only closes once, from January 1st to 3rd. Entrance fee is RM12 for adults and no fee is imposed on children below 17.
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