Yusoff Abdul Latiff is a retired teacher who paints detailed portraits, intricate Peranakan houses and elaborate landscapes. He has participated in group exhibitions with Singapore Watercolour Society (SWS), Angkatan Pelukis Aneka Daya (APAD), Maya Gallery and Kamal Gallery. He has also contributed his artworks to ‘Passage’, the quarterly newsletter of Friends of the Museum, Singapore.
"The painting, Masjid Sultan at its Bicentennial, commemorates the Bicentennial of Masjid Sultan this year. This biggest mosque in Singapore and the icon and focal point of Kampong Gelam was first built for Sultan Hussain Shah in 1824, with a double-tiered Nusantara-styled roof. It was deemed dilapidated and rebuilt about a hundred years later with this Indo-Moorish style. The conspicuous onion-shaped golden-coloured dome has at its base a band of dark-coloured bottles representing the contribution of the less well-off like trishaw riders and labourers. Declared as a National Monument in 1975, it is the only mosque allowed to face its loudspeakers outwards enabling the azan (call to prayer) to resound through the air of Kampong Gelam, reminiscent of the ambience of the holy city of Makkah."
