(28/05/1929 - 2017)
Joo For Lee was born in 1929 in Penang. In 1957, he was awarded a scholarship by the Malaysian government to study art at Brighton College of Art. Whilst there, he received additional scholarships to study at the Camberwell School of Art, and then at the Royal College of Art. On his return to Malaysia he taught art at the Penang Free School and became the Head of the Art Department at the Malaysian Teacher's College in Johore Bahru.
Lee was generally regarded in Malaysia as one of a group of artists who shaped the new aesthetic of the 1960s, having received formal art education in Europe. Besides exhibitions in Malaysia, he had solo exhibitions at London’s Commonwealth Institute (1960), International Institute, New York (1969), Kansas University (1969) and Washington Goodwind Mansions (1969). He also represented Malaysia at the Tokyo International Print Exhibition (1966), the Italian Expositions of International Prints (1976), Montreal Expo Combined Exhibition (1970) and São Paolo Combined Exhibition (1970). He was also a poet, novelist, short-story writer and award-winning playwright.
