A 2022 exhibition in Kuala Lumpur used pointillism to connect close observation of nature with the slow discipline of building images dot by dot.
Nature Pointillism, presented at GMBB by the Museum of Picture Book Art, featured more than 50 works by artist-illustrator Emila Yusof and four artists she mentored: Mimi Salleh, Noorsa’adah Ahmad, Yan Yahya and Zalila Isa.
Learning through repetition
Pointillism constructs images from small marks of colour placed in deliberate relation to one another. The method emerged in late 19th-century France through artists including Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, but the Kuala Lumpur exhibition approached it as a contemporary learning process rather than a historical revival.
Yusof began exploring the technique after encountering Signac’s work in Vienna in 2019. She later guided the four participating artists, each of whom came from a different professional or creative background.
The repeated application of dots demanded patience and attention. Yan Yahya described the time required to build successive layers of colour, while Noorsa’adah Ahmad developed confidence after initially doubting her ability to paint. Mimi Salleh connected the process with a broader way of seeing, and editor Zalila Isa found that drawing altered her perception of trees, leaves and variations of green.
Nature examined at a smaller scale
The exhibition’s natural theme suited the technique. Plants, water, landscapes and organic forms could be broken into accumulations of colour, encouraging artists to observe details that might otherwise be overlooked.
Works such as Noorsa’adah’s Emerald Lake demonstrated how the method could create depth and atmosphere without conventional brushwork. Across the exhibition, technical repetition became a means of developing confidence as well as an aesthetic choice.
Nature Pointillism remained at GMBB until 22 April 2022. Its significance lay less in reproducing a historic style than in showing how a demanding technique could support mentorship, collective learning and renewed attention to the natural world.