Biography of Bibsy Soenharjo

About The Poet

Bibsy Soenharjo was born in Jakarta on 22 November 1928. Bibsy and her siblings were homeschooled and each was encouraged to pursue their own interests. She had a particular fondness for literature and, after returning home from a four-year stay in Japan, Bibsy began writing her first prose in 1957, and then poetry in the 60s.

 

The Literary Review, an international quarterly published by Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, USA, published her first four literary pieces in their Autumn and Spring Editions in 1967 and 1968 respectively. In 1967 also, her poem, “Jakarta, March 1967” was published in the Australian magazine Hemisphere, while ”Setelah Gerhana Bulan” (After the Eclipse of the Moon) was published in Gelanggang, an Indonesian cultural magazine now defunct.

Her poems have appeared in bilingual anthologies, with her Indonesian works translated into English, Dutch and Japanese and her English poems into Indonesian and Dutch. She continued to write prose pieces in Indonesian that appeared in Jakarta dailies under the pen name Nuspati.

Bibsy Soenharjo now lives in Jakarta with the youngest of her three sons, Haryo, his wife Sutji and their children.

Biography of Latiff Mohidin

Latiff Mohidin is a poet-painter, born on Aug 20, 1938 in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. Called ‘Boy Wonder’ since age 11, he received his art education at Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste, Berlin, Germany in 1960. In 1969, Latiff furthered his studies in printmaking at Atelier La Courriere in Paris, France and Pratt Graphic Centre in New York, USA. He started writing poetry in the early sixties. Since then, his work has been published in various magazines and translated into English and Chinese. Today, Latiff Mohidin is one of Malaysia’s most celebrated living artist and poet and is considered a national treasure.

 

Solo Exhibitions (selected)

1963 – Frankfurter Kunstkabinett, Frankfurt – am – Main, Germany
1964 – Ladengalerie, Berlin, Germany
1971 – British Council, Kuala Lumpur
1972 – Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery, London
1973 – Retrospective Exhibition, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
1988 – Maybank Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
1989 – MAS Building, Kuala Lumpur
1994 – Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
1998 – Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur

 

Awards

1953 – 1st prize and special prize in oil painting, Malaysian AgriHorticulture Association, Kuala Lumpur
1960 – DAAD, German Academy Student Exchange Scholarship, Bonn
1968 – 2nd prize Graphic, Honourable Mention in other Media, Salon Malaysia, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
1969 – French Ministry of Culture Scholarship, Paris
1984 – S.E.A. Write Award, Bangkok Thailand
1988 – Guest Writer, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur Literature
1988 – Garis Latiff Mohidin dari Titik ketitik, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur
1994 – T.K. Sabapathy, (editor), Pago – Pago to Gelombang, 40 years of Latiff Mohidin, Singapore Art Museum
1998 – T.K. Sabapathy, Latiff Mohidin Rimba Series, Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur

 

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