Global Courant
At the event, the ruler of Perak said that Mr. Nor had succeeded in capturing the harmonic essence of life in a pluralistic society, revealing the truths of living in a society made up of different races, religions, cultures and languages .
Mr. Nor said he was pleased that the gallery is now open to the public.
“The idea to establish the gallery was actually Sultan Nazrin himself when he was still Raja Muda (Crown Prince). He told me it would be great to put all my artwork in a gallery in Ipoh.
“From there, I had several talks with the state government and I decided to keep the gallery in Batu Gajah as it is only 30 minutes away from my village, Kampung Lalang in Kota Bharu,” he said.
Mr Nor added that he hopes the gallery will hold art classes and workshops in the future.
The Perak-born artist had his first design published in 1962, the cover of his school magazine called “Suara Pasir Puteh” when he was only 11 years old.
In 1968, his artwork called “Mamat’s Family” comic was first published in Malaysian daily newspaper Berita Minggu and its publication took 26 years.
His career took a turn after the publication of his comic “Bersunat” in Asia Magazine, Hong Kong in 1974, where he was appointed as a columnist by the English daily New Straits Times, titled “Scenes of Malaysian Life”.
