Yeoh Jin Leng, one of Malaysia’s modern art masters, has died at 96

Yeoh Jin Leng, a towering figure in Malaysian modern art whose six-decade career in painting, sculpture and teaching helped shape the nation’s artistic landscape and intellectual discourse, died in Selangor last Friday (Aug 8) at the age of 96, the National Art Gallery (Balai Seni Negara) announced.

Born in 1929 in Kampung Pisang, Ipoh, Perak, Yeoh was among the last generation of Malaysian artists born before the war, experiencing the hardships of the Japanese occupation during World War II. When the conflict ended, he resumed his education at Anderson School, Ipoh, completing his secondary studies in 1949 at the age of 20.

Yeoh’s ‘Seberang Takir’, an oil on board painting, created in 1964. Photo: Muzium & Galeri Tuanku Fauziah, Universiti Sains Malaysia

He first trained as an English teacher, but his life took a defining turn in 1953 when he earned a place at the Malayan Teachers’ Training College in Kirkby, Liverpool, Britain. This was his first real immersion into the Western world, an experience that would expand his artistic lens.

A Malayan government scholarship later took Yeoh to the Chelsea School of Art in London (1957–1961) and the University of London’s Institute of Education (1962–1963), providing him with the formal artistic grounding that would shape his work.

He was also among the first locally born Malaysians – alongside Syed Ahmad Jamal (1929–2011), Ibrahim Hussein (1936–2009), Abdul Latiff Mohidin, Jolly Koh and Lee Joo For (1929–2017) – to gain a professional artistic education at European institutions and colleges.

Yeoh pauses in reflection during a 1985 painting session at his home studio in Ampang, Selangor. Photo: The Star/Filepic

Upon returning home, Yeoh – who at the time worked primarily with oils and acrylics – devoted himself to nurturing the next generation of students, artists and educators.

His early 1960s teaching stint at a secondary school in Kuala Terengganu offered the perfect setting for this young Malaysian artist, influenced largely by abstract expressionism, to embrace landscape painting inspired by the rural scenes of the East Coast.

During his Terengganu years, he produced a series of oil-on-canvas works that continue to light up national galleries and exhibitions today. The classic Trenggan (1968), a crimson-based abstract, is part of the National Art Gallery collection, while the art school staple Rice Fields (1963) showcases Yeoh’s powerful brushstrokes and masterful sense of space and atmosphere.

Yeoh, who made his entire life a creative endeavour, held a unique place in the Malaysian art scene, bridging galleries, studios and exhibitions while laying the groundwork for artistic exploration through his dual roles as artist and educator.

Yeoh’s ‘Rockforms I’ (oil on canvas, 1965). Photo: Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery

Beyond the paintbrush, Yeoh was a dedicated and forward-thinking teacher, lecturing in art education at the Specialist Teachers’ Training Institute (1963–1968) before heading its Art Education Department in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur (1969–1983). He co-founded and served as vice-president of the Malaysian Artists’ Association (1982–1984), and later was Dean of Studies at the Malaysian Institute of Art (1985–1994).

Despite retiring from the civil service in 1983, Yeoh hardly slowed down, devoting more time to ceramics and pottery – a passion that dated back to his Chelsea days and was influenced by Bernard Leach, the father of British studio pottery.

In 1996, a retrospective at the National Art Gallery cemented Yeoh’s standing as one of the nation’s foremost artists and thinkers, showcasing his expansive repertoire in painting, ceramics and sculpture.

Yeoh, who made his life a creative endeavour, held a unique place in Malaysian art, bridging galleries and studios while shaping artistic exploration as both artist and educator. Photo: The Star/Filepic

In the ensuing years, the well-travelled Yeoh continued to make art and travel extensively – a passion since his youth – following backpacker trails through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, India and China.

An avid collector of indigenous arts and craft, Yeoh also curated and exhibited a personal collection in Kuala Lumpur in 2006, featuring traditional textiles such as pua kumbu, ceremonial cloths, shawls and other works from tribal communities in Malaysia and the region.

In 2017, Yeoh’s work was prominently featured in Ilham Gallery’s Gerak Rupa Ubur Penyataan 1957–1973 exhibition, which traced the rise of modern art in 1960s Malaysia.