画集名称：Masterpieces from the National Art Gallery of Malaysia

（马来西亚国家画廊名家作品集） 

出版日期：2002年

 

作者：Redza Piyadasa

 

Preface

"The modernist impulse in Malaysia painting and sculpture has a pedigree much older than that signaled by the launching of the Gallery in 1958. Even so, it could be argued that the history of the "hot centre" of modern Malaysian art very nearly corresponds with the history of the Gallery. Indeed, the opening of the Gallery was a self-conscious declaration that the notion of the modern in the visual arts had arisen in the national consciousness. This view is reinforced by the fact that many of the seminal achievements legitimizing modern Malaysian art, both at home and abroad, have occurred mainly during the lifetime of the Gallery." -- Krishen Jit, in the Introduction of the book, Vision and Idea - Re-looking Modern Malaysian Art, 1994.

The idea of the modern art museum was originally a Western one and it was imported by the non-Western world. The arrival of the modern art museum in the non-Western countries followed in the wake of the new, secularistic art traditions that had inevitably appeared, as a consequence of the historic, modernising process that had taken place. In the case of modern Malaysia, the emergence of the National Art Gallery had been a belated one. It was established only in August 1958, one year after the achievement of the country's independence. The colonial British government had not found a useful political role for art in this country and had thus not officially encouraged artistic activity nor the building of any art museums. The formation of the National Art Gallery by the new, young nationalist government in 1958, was therefore a significant event in that its very appearance, as stated by Krishan Jit in the above quotation, had signalled ＂a self-conscious declaration that the notion of the modern in the visual arts had arisen in the national consciousness."

Bearing in mind that our pioneering modern artist had originally founded the new modernist art tradition without any institutional support whatsoever, the Gallery's formation had been especially significant and timely. The Gallery would become the legitimizing agent for the new modern Malaysian artistic tradition. And any art tradition must need its recognition and validation. The Gallery would undertake the task of systematically promoting artistic activities and promoting Malaysian artists, both locally and internationally, in the decades that followed its formation. It would also become, in time, the official national repository and guardian of the nation's finest modernist art productions. We may be reminded that the Gallery had begun its humble existence with only four hurriedly donated art works in its permanent art collection in 1958. Today, it boasts an impressive collection of more than two thousand and five hundred art works as well as an impressive new, permanent building. And indeed, it has fulfilled a vital and impressive role in nurturing our modernist art movement to its full maturity. And this role becomes especially vital in non-Western countries where secularistic art contexts are still relatively new and all the necessary support systems are not yet fully in place. That the Gallery has become the "hot centre" of modern art activity in this country is not surprising, in retrospect. That had been its original purpose as envisioned by the small number of enlightened men and women, all genuine art lovers, who had worked so hard to help it come into existence, during the late 1950s.

The primary purpose of this publication is to introduce to our local art lovers, tertiary students and the public-at-large, both local and foreign, a sampling of outstanding art works that have been produced by our modern Malaysian artists. The works featured here have been drawn from the Gallery's own permanent collection. Eighty significant art works produced by four generations of artists were chosen. Bearing in mind, the many art colleges and other tertiary educational institutions that exist in this country today and also, the sizeable number of Malaysian middle class today, publications such as this, undertaken by the Gallery, can further encourage appreciation and understanding of modern Malaysian art. In envisaging the book, it was decided that it should be written in an easy, readable style that will appeal to the interested layman as well as to the serious researcher. There are many people in our society today who are curious enough to want to know about the Gallery and about modern Malaysian art. It was decided that the book should be, first and foremost, usefully informative and illuminating. It was decided that the book could be conceived as a healthy cross between an art historical publication and an attractively enticing coffee table books. Its main purpose is to fulfill a vital educational function. Of course, it should also serve as a useful promotional exercise for the Gallery and win still more friends for the Gallery.

The choice of the word "Masterpieces" as it appears in the title of the book may inspire some discomfort and debate in some quarters and this is to be welcomed. Recent art critical pursuits, inspired by the post-modernist model, for instance, have tended to question the institution of the art museum and any kind of attempts made to construct a hierarchical order in the discussion of art works. We may be reminded here that the post-modernist trait to resist and dismantle hierarchies is only possible because properly constructed art traditions and art historical contexts already exist! Institutions like the National Art Gallery of Malaysia and other national museums take it upon themselves to project a vital sense of history, context and tradition. And, it is expected by the public that such an art institution embody standards of excellence in the acquisition of its permanent collection. It is with these thoughts in mind that a number of pertinent questions may be asked, namely: Is the Gallery's collection meritorious? If so, in what way? Can these eighty chosen works withstand prolonged and close scrutiny? Do they mirror the excitement, flavour and history of our own modernist tradition? It is my belief that these chosen works, when viewed within the contexts of the times when they were created and also when viewed within the overall story of an evolving modern Malaysian art tradition, are indeed significant and outstanding art works. They reveal the diversity, complexity and richness of artistic expressions in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nation. These indeed are some of "our own" masterpieces. And a young, dynamic nation like Malaysia needs her own artistic masterpieces and artistic heroes that her citizens can be truly proud of. These selected works are unique when they appeared here at a particular time in our history and they have helped reaffirm the story of our unique and complex culture journey as a multi-ethnic nation thus far.

Whether we like it or not, we may be reminded that the moment an art work slips through the door of the art museum and is displayed in its spaces, or is collected by a national art museum, it immediately assumes an aura, a marvelousness and a distinctness that was not there when it was on the artist's studio floor. Marcel Duchamp's famous found object, the urinal, which set out to determine the Western art establishment and destroy establishment values in its own day exists today, quite paradoxically, enhanced in an art museum collection, exuding its own mythically aura. Duchamp's urinal is today viewed quite differently from its original state as a mundane object or even when it was first projected in a controversial exhibition in Paris. That is exactly what art museums tend to do to art objects. Whether art museums will ever become insignificant or stop fulfilling their legitimizing function in the construction of artistic traditions and myths can be speculated upon. It seems unlikely that art museums will ever become redundant. We may be reminded that even as there are today art critical position drawn in invalidating institutions like art museums, never in the history of mankind have museums been built with such frequentness and passion everywhere as is being witnessed today. And, in non-Western contexts, where secularistic art activity is still relatively new and all the necessary support systems are not yet fully in place, the role of the national art museum will continue to occupy a special position and it will continue to feature significantly. Art traditions and artists will need to gain respectability and be properly validated and a legitimizing institution such as the National Art Gallery of Malaysia public's perception of artists and their significant contributions. To discount this significant fact is to shoot oneself in front!

In planning the format of this book, it was decided that the chosen art works would be presented under four distinct categories: (1) Place/ Environment / Things; (2) Mythology/ Belief/ Tradition; (3) Society/ The Self/ Memory; (4) Abstraction/ Concept/ The New Real. Each section contains twenty art works that relate to the specific themes and issues that have been worked out. These categories are not intended to be used or read in exclusive terms. They have been selected with the aim of enabling the framing of art works within broad, cognitive categories, which in turn leads to the way we construct and perceive the world, communities and ourselves. They should enhance ways of looking and seeing. It was decided that the arrangement of the works should emphasize a chronological order of presentation, wherever relevant, in order to allow the reader a sense of the actual historical contexts and the times in which the works were produced, thereby revealing as well the peculiar problems faced by each generation of artists in their search for pertinent forms and artistic meanings. By and large, formalistic and stylistic pursuits have dominated our artists' attention. It was only in the late 1980s that post-modernist tendencies appeared within the local art scene in any significantly influential way. Bearing in mind the essentially multi-ethnic and multi-cultural realities of the Malaysian situation, it is only to be expected that the artistic approaches would be diverse and often reflect influences that betrayed the artist's own ethnic background and personal preferences. Yet other artists have borrowed freely from the diverse multi-cultural influences existing in their midst. If the beginnings of the movement had been dominated by the role of Chinese artists, it was because that community had been initially better placed economically and better exposed culturally to accept the new modernist art influences. The emergence of Malay and other indigenous artists as a strong artistic force was only possible during the 1950s and after. The number of Indian artists has remained relatively small even if their contributions have been significant.

Lastly, it may be pointed out that a population that knows and appreciates its significant artists and their major artistic productions is indeed a more informed, culturally enriched one. It is hoped that this publication will contribute towards achieving this objective. It is hoped that this book will bring to the reader many meaningful moments of pleasure as well. More significantly, it is hopes that this book will help inculcate in all Malaysian a genuine sense of national pride in the outstanding achievements of our visual artists.

REDZA PIYADASA
KUALA LUMPUR

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The National Art Gallery of Malaysia

The National Art Gallery of Malaysia

　　

“Art expresses and reflects the spirit and personality of the people who make a nation. Malaya has many artists whom she may be justly prod, but it is only in an Art Gallery that the public can see and enjoy their works, and unless the best works of our artists are purchased for a National Collection, they can rarely be exhibited. The foundation of independence has been well-laid, and it is the responsibility of the present generation of Malayans to build on them a nation which will gain some of the inspiration from a fine collection of works of art, worthily housed and accessible to all.” -- Statement of purpose, included in the first exhibition catalogue, published by the National Art Gallery of Malaysia, in August, 1958

For the Malaysian artists, the formation of the Gallery was to prove most consequential indeed. It had marked the new government's official recognition of a modernist art tradition in his country. For the first time there was an official body to systematically promote major art exhibitions and art competitions, collect and document the works of local artists, and more significantly, advance the works of Malaysian artists in the international arena from the mid-1960s onwards. Exhibitions of Malaysia Art were sent to Europe, Australia and New Zealand during the 1960s and the 1970s. The works of Malaysian artists were also sent to represent Malaysia in major international art exhibitions, such as the India Art Triennial at New Delhi, the Sao Paolo Triennial in Brazil and the Tokyo Art Bienniale in Japan. Syed Ahmad Jamal’s painting the Bait won the second prize at the Indian Art Triennial in 1960. Artists from the United States and Europe had also participated in that exhibition. Other Malaysian artists would follow in his footsteps in the decades ahead and bring international recognition and honours to the Malaysian nation. In 1971, Ismail Zain was appointed as the new Director of the Gallery, replacing Frank Sullivan, who had been retired. The position of the Director had now been designated a permanent governmental appointment. The National Art Gallery has never looked back since that earlier period of its humble beginnings and the rest is now history.

For the first twenty-five years, the National Art Gallery was located at its original site along Jalan Ampang. As its activities increased, it was realized that the gallery space in that small building was inadequate. A new larger art gallery was now needed. On May 21, 1984, the Gallery officially opened is new premises at the former Hotel Majestic building, located at No.1, Jalan Hishamuddin in Kuala Lumpur. The hotel building had been offered to the Gallery by the government and t was specially renovated for its new purposes. This new building was also to be a temporary home until a permanent gallery could be built. The opening ceremony was officiated by Yang Berhormat Datuk Seri Dr.Mahathir Mohamad, the country's fourth Minister. The Director of the gallery at this time was Tuan Syed Ahmad Jamal. The much larger space of this six-storey high National Art Gallery now allowed for the display of most of the permanent art collection in thirty-seven renovated rooms, located on four floors. The Gallery's permanent art collection now stood at a little more than one thousand art works. For the first time, the Malaysian public and foreign visitors could appreciate more fully the innovative qualities of our modern artists' creative efforts. The gallery would remain at this new location until 1998.

The 1990s had marked a decade when the country was going through an unprecedented economic boom and much development. The decade had witnessed the emergence of many commercial art galleries and art colleges. It had also witnessed the appearance of new corporate and private art collectors. Many significant exhibition catalogues and art historical publications were published as well by the Gallery. Participation of our artists in major international exhibitions, sponsored by the gallery, had become commonplace. Our artists continued to win international awards and honours. Foreign art museums were now buying the works of our artists for their permanent art collections. The significant role played by the National Art gallery in promoting modern Malaysian art both locally and internationally had continued.

The momentous construction of the present, permanent national Art gallery building, located along Jalan Temerloh, off Jalan Tun Razak in Kuala Lumpur was began during the mid-1990s. Formal occupation of this building took place in September 1998. The official opening of this new, permanent four-storey gallery building by Yang Berhormat Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia, took place on September 25, 2000. The Gallery now boasts five large exhibition galleries, an auditorium for public lectures, a library and resource centre, a restaurant and special facilities for administration as well as storage and restoration purposes. A special commerative exhibition entitled Rupa Malaysia – Relooking Modern Malaysian Art was curatored by Redza Piyadasa to mark the Gallery's official opening and it featured 137 major works, executed in diverse media and produced by four generations of artists. It showcased the truly outstanding achievements of Malaysia's modern artists. This significant historical exhibition was well received by the Malaysian public and international visitors and lasted for more than a year, until 31 December 2001.

The official opening of the new and impressive permanent National Art Gallery building by the Prime Minister had indeed marked a meaningful, historic point of "arrival" for the Gallery, which had begun its humble existence forty-three years earlier. The new gallery boasts more exhibition space and a much bigger staff than ever before. The present Chairman of the Board of Trustees is Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri Kamarul Ariffin bin Yassin and the present Director of the Gallery is Puan Wairah Marzuki. The present Board of Trustees is the thirteenth in the Gallery's history. The present number of art works in the Gallery's permanent art collection numbers more than two thousand five hundred significant art works. The National Art Gallery of Malaysia, like the Malaysian nation, had indeed travelled a long, colourful and illustrious journey and has finally achieved its maturity. Today the Gallery enjoys a stature as one of the significant modern art museums in the Asia-Pacific region. 　　

 

 

Modern Malaysia Art – An Introduction

 

The modern Malaysian nation state is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural entity. It is also a post-colonial nation where traditional religious beliefs and values constantly overlap with modern, secularistic influences. Malaysia is a complex nation made up of multiple, overlapping cultural realities. Malaysia’s heterogenous population of about twenty one millions inhabitants includes the Malays, the Dayaks, the Kadazans, the Chinese, the Indians, the Bajaus, the Murut, the Orang Asli, the Eurasians, and other minority ethnic groups. The official religion of the country is Islam but freedom of religious worship is guaranteed by the nation’s constitution. The arrival of the non-indigenous peoples, namely, the Chinese and the Indians, in large numbers, took place during the 19th and 20th centuries. The story of a modern Malaysia art tradition has, as such, been characterized by multi-ethnic artistic engagements and endeavours. Its origins are traceable to the early decades of the 20th century. It may be rightly claimed that the excitement of modern Malaysian art lies in the fact that this relatively young artistic tradition has continued to mirror aspects of the diverse cultural realities and also the inevitable societal tensions that might be expected from this progressive, dynamic Southeast Asian nation.

 

"The Chinese Mills"　Capt. Robert Smith　1818

　　It will be useful to look at the historical origins of the modern Malaysian nation state. The presence of non-indigenous peoples in this country today can be attributed to the 19th century British effort to bring in large numbers of immigrants into the country to help develop it. The Chinese and Indians, arriving initially as indentured labourers and later, as tradesmen and artisans, brought with them their own languages, customs and cultural forms. They thereby added a new, complex social dimension to the hitherto indigenous Malay-Islamic ambience of the place. It was during the 19th century that the British had also introduced a new Western-oriented educational model through the newly-started English language schools. The consequence of this development was the introduction of new modes of cultural perception that had slowly but systematically changed the country and its people. The new Western-derived educational model, founded on pragmatic, scientific and individualistic underpinnings, resulted in the introduction of modernizing influences. By the early 20th century, the place had been transformed by the growth of the new, urban town centres. New kinds of imported architecture had emerged, heralding a new way of life and a new modern era in the nation’s history. There was a new urban environment and culture, quite distinct from that of the earlier, unhurried, rural settings of the Malays and other indigenous peoples. And in this new urbanized environment, a new cosmopolitan cultural atmosphere emerged. Initially, these transformative developments took place in the so-called Straits Settlements which were the new centres of trade, education and social change. It was in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Singapore and Malacca therefore that the new modern art activity initially took root.

"Self Portrait"　Yong Mun Sen　1941

　　For those who wanted to find employment within the colonial government service, the mastery of the English language became an essential qualification, achieved via attending the English language schools. Not everyone, however, went to these schools. The British colonialists, in their attempts to ensure their political dominance over the pluralistic populace, had also introduced a complex "divide-and-rule" educational population policy, whereby different language schools were systematically established for the different ethnic groups as well. A linguistically fragmented populace, separated by deliberate colonial political design, was the result. The overall British thrust was, nevertheless, towards modernising the country, in order to make it a viable contributor to British’s industrial ambitions. These modernizing processes introduced new modes of cultural perception. Ideas about the physical world changed radically. From the more traditional, religious and symbolic modes of perceiving and interpreting reality, a more scientific and rational appreciation of nature and reality emerged. A consequence of these modernizing developments was the emergence of a new kind of creative visual artist in this country. This new artists, initially imbibing the tenets of Naturalism, new ideas of artistic individualism as an experimental mode of self-expression, derived from the West, differed from the more traditional craftsmen of the place who functioned within strictly religious, symbolic and culturally-restricted systems and contexts. This new kind of secularistic, modern artistic activity was not restricted by religious or ethnic demarcations.

"Portrait of My Wife in Wedding Dress"　O Don Peris　1933

　　Although the beginnings of our modern art tradition is dateable 1920s, the actual introduction of Western-type art forms into this country must have taken place much earlier. The Portuguese had initially introduced Christian-type imagery into the Catholic churches in Malacca. The Dutch who replaced the Portuguese in Malacca must have also brought into that historic town some examples of naturalistic landscape and portrait paintings for which they had become famous in Europe. What we actually have with us today, in our art museums, are the 19th century scenic topographical views produced by the British traveler-artists, employing an approach founded on the naturalistic “picturesque” treatment. Compared to the Indians, the Indonesians, the Filipinos and the Thais, who had began their modern art movements during the mid-19th century, Malaysians were late starters. Why was this so? A few reasons may be ventured. The British colonialists had not envisaged a political role for art here and they had not encouraged it. The local ethnic groups were initially also disinclined towards Western-type artistic expression. The religious Malay-Muslims were initially suspicious of Western education and cultural influences and did not readily take to Western educational influences and cultural forms during the 19th century. The Chinese and the Indians, having come here as poor immigrants, were more interested in their economic upliftment and certainly not in imbibing Western cultural forms. They were initially busy establishing their own cultural edifices and forms. It was only in the early decades of the 20th century that the conditions were right for Western-type art commitments. The emergence of small amateur art groups, by the 1920s, within the Straits Settlements, marked the humble beginnings of our modernist art commitments.

"The Rich Land"　Abdullah Ariff　1960

　　The unique, intra-ethnic dimension of the story of Malaysian art was already obvious I its beginnings. Among the more significant pioneer artists who began the movement may be included Yong Mun Sen, a Sarawak-born Chinese, settled in Penang, O. Don Peris, an immigrant artist from Sri Lanka, who had studied in Paris and initially come to Singapore and later settled in Johor Baru, and Abdullah Ariff, a Penang Malay school teacher teaching art in the Penang Free School. There were others but these three artists should suffice to illustrate the multi-ethnic beginnings of the new modernist art tradition during the pre-War era. There was no support system for artistic activity in those days and our pioneering artists had worked in relative isolation and exhibited in school halls and the various community halls. The earliest efforts were marked by attempts to record the salient features of the place and its peoples. Landscape paintings, portraiture and still-life efforts had featured in the early days. The favoured mediums were oil painting and watercolour painting. Naturalism was the preferred idiom initially. A new involvement with easel-painting commitments had been put in place.

"Still Life With Jugs"　Chia Yu Chian　1967

　　By the late 1930s, influences from the School of Paris, such as Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Fauvism were gradually introduced. The role played by the Chinese immigrant artists during this time was especially significant. Many of these Chinese artists had arrived from mainland China, where a historic social and cultural revolution had taken place, inspired by the May 4th Pai Hua literary movement of 1917. There was a new acceptance of the spirit of modernization and realism in literature and art in mainland China. The artists had come here to teach in the newly expanded Chinese language secondary schools as art teachers. One of these early immigrant artists, Lim Hak Tai, started the Nanyang Academy of Fine Art (NAFA) in Singapore in 1938.The Nanyang Academy was the first proper fine art college to be started in British Malaya. The medium of instruction was Mandarin hence, Chinese Mandarin-educated school leavers from mainland Malaya as well as Sarawak and British North Borneo, went to study there in large numbers, after the Second World War. It was in the years after the Second World War that the significant contributions of the Nanyang art movement would be made. During the 1950s, the Nanyang art movement witnessed the rise of many significant artists such as Cheong Soo-Pieng, Georgette Chen, Chen Wen Hsi, Chung Chen Sun, Lai Foong Moi, Cheah Yew Saik, Tan Choon Ghee, Tew Naitong, Chia Yu-Chian, Khoo Sui-Hoe and others. Several graduates of the college proceeded to Paris and London to continue their studies and later returned home. 

"Tropical Life"　Cheong SooPieng　1959
　　



"Rice Fields, Trengganu"　Yeoh Jin Leng　1963


"Spirits of the Earth, Water and Air"　Patrick Ng Kah Onn　1958





"Pago-pago"　Abdil Latiff Mohidin　1964




 　　The May 13, 1969 intra-ethnic riots between the Malays and the Chinese had indeed marked a wake-up call for Malaysian artists. And two works produced in the immediate aftermath of the May 13 event, aptly illustrated a new kind of artistic imagery never seen before. Ibrahim Hussein's somber work titled May 13, 1969 (1970) featuring a blackened-out Malaysian flag and the tragic number "13" inscribed below it addressed the riots. The other work was Redza Piyadasa's installation, also titled May 13, 1969 and produced in 1970. It featured an upright, life-size coffin, draped standing on a delicate reflective mirror. These two disturbing works, inspired by the traumatic racial riots, clearly heralded a new, somewhat belated artistic consciousness of the pertinence of contemporary socio-political contexts and a new possible role for art, which was to address more directly the more complex societal issues besetting the young nation state. The prevailing interest in abstract art and conceptual art concerns by many leading artists, at that time, had, however, discouraged a more serious confrontation with the deeper, intra-ethnic, societal issues for quite some time to come.

"49 Squares"　Tang Tuck Kan　1969




 　　The Malay-Islamic art movement affected not only the artists connected to the ITM art school but other non-ITM Malay artists as well. Their growing sense of their Malay-ness was further re-inforced when the government, in introducing and implementing the New Economic Policy's affirmative action policy, had demarcated the peoples of this nation into two distinctive groups, namely, the indigenous natives, now to be called the Bumiputeras and the non-indigenous immigrants, now to be called the Non-Bumiputeras. This was the new scenario following in the wake of the May 13 event and a new sense of a cultural schism had inevitably begun to creep into the art scene. These new developments marked a more difficult phase indeed, signalling also the beginnings of ethnic tensions and ethnic self-consciousness within the society-at-large.

"Gunung Ledang"　Syed Ahmad Jamal　1978



 　　The second phase of the Malay-Islamic revival in art, beginning from around the early 1980s, was marked by the introduction of distinctive Islamic values and a marked Islamic overtone. The art historian, Zainal Abidin Ahmad Shariff, has suggested, in his essay published in the book Vision and Idea – Relooking Modern Malaysian Art, that this new Islamic dimension had been partly inspired by the successful Islamic revolution in Iran of 1978 and the emergence of the Islamic state there. The Malaysian government's Islamisation processes, begun in the early 1980s, had also given an added impetus th the Islamic dimension that appeared within the Malay-centred artistic movement. The projection of Islamic culture and civilization now became the rallying cry within the larger Islamic world as well as and many Malay-Muslim artists linked to the ITM art school responded emotionally to new impulses, which saw the introduction of radical new ideas about an Islamic religious world-view being introduces. A larger philosophical debate ensued. Should Muslims reject the Western materialistic philosophy and Western idea of modernism? For the Muslims intellectuals, Western modernism was now viewed as essentially hedonistic, not moralistic but decadent and had thus to be rejected. It was seculistic and individualistic in orientations and not religio-centred. In short, the Western-derived modern artistic and literary movements, founded on humanistic individualism and self-expression, therefore also needed to be rejected. Art's real function was to highlight the worship of Allah and his divine laws. Only religiously inspired art forms were valid for Muslims. For the local Malay writers the new rallying call had now become the search for a Sastera Islam (Islamic literature) and for the Malay artists it was Seni Islam (Islamic art). The idea of an Islamic "renaissance" gad became the new catch phrase. It was clearly linked to a new, globalised Islamic resurgence. The first calls for an Islamic state by certain extremist quarters, began to appear in this country around the early 1980s.

"Oppositions"　Ahmad Khalid Yusoff　1993

　　And this was the case with some of the ITM artists who embraced the new Islamic consciousness. There was now a rejection of the underpinnings of the modernist movement in art and the Western-derived idea of modernity and secularism itself. At the ITM art school, figurative art was now discouraged and a new prescriptive, abstract approach to art making, founded on Islamic religious and design principles, began to be encouraged, in earnest. The ubiquitous Islamic Jawi script inevitably featured. And this Islamic consciousness was reflected in the works of Sulaiman Esa, Ahmad Khalid Yusof, Raja Zahabuddin Yaacob, Hamdzun Haron, and others. In retrospect, it may be stated that the Malay-Islamic approach adopted by the Malay-Islamic visual artists toward creativity, had been founded on the fabrication of cultural forms that owed their sudden appearance to the new ideological and politicised considerations rather than to any natural, historical, evolutionary processes that had taken place here. It was, in essence, a self-conscious revivalist art movement attempting to evoke the past glories of the Arab-Islamic past. That these abstract Islamic works had emerged within the secularistic confines of the ITM art college, and exhibited within the secularistic contexts of the art museum and the art galleries, rather than in the contexts of everyday-life religious contexts, is a moot point that is worth considering, in hindsight. The movement, nevertheless, had reflected the new politicized sentiments that have emerged within sections of the Malay-Islamic community in this country since the 1980s. The on-going, strident calls for the formation of a theocratic Islamic state by the Islamic Pas political party and other local Muslim fundamentalists, marks the most extreme manifestation of these new Malay-Islamic political impulses within the country. It is posing serious political problems that the present, more liberalised UMNO-led, multi-ethnic Barisan Nasional ruling coalition is having to downplay.


"Tomb Stone"　Hamzun Harun　1992

　　The present day Malaysia that has just entered the new millennium is indeed a far cry from the Malaysia of the pre-May 13 era. The nation has been successfully industrialising since the 1970s and Vision 2020, an idea inspired by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, marks the target date for possible arrival at fully industrialised nation status. Malaysia is today the eighteenth largest trading partner of the United States of America and is being held up as a rare model Islamic country that is fast making the transition into the post-modern globalised economic culture, There has arisen a substantial multi-ethnic middle class population. Malaysia is an international success story which is the envy of the other Islamic nations. There is intra-racial harmony and a tolerance of the nation’s multi-cultural religions, values and forms. How have these radical socio-economic developments affected the local art scene and our other more serious artists in recent years? What are some of the more serious issues that artists are tackling these days? It may be useful to dwell a little longer with the Malay creative artists. Clearly the rise of the new urbanised, consumerist, supermarket culture here in recent years, has affected the older, traditional way of life. These new cultural developments have affected everyone, irrespective of race or religion. It has signaled a new kind of altered cultural environment and has introduced a notion of a new urban identity that has largely overtaken the earlier, laid-back Malay rural contexts and its concomitant sentimentalised visions of a monolithic Malay cultural identity.

"My Father And The Astronaut"　Ibrahim Hussein　1969

"Between Two Servings"　Din Omar　1992

　　For the new Malays of today, it has been marked by an especially 　　

drastic shift environmentally. And, interestingly enough, not all Malay artists have tended to turn back the clock and return to a religious world of the idealised MaIay-lslamic past or the Arab-Muslim cultural past. The new Malay confrontation with the technological age has indeed been a complex transformative process, as it is for everyone else in this country. The inevitable implications of this larger, new global cultural reality was, in fact, initially hinted at by the artist Ibrahim Hussein in his prescient painting My Father and the Astronaut, 1970. The old, shirtless Malay peasant (his father) is juxtaposed standing against the ultimate symbol of the modern machine culture, an American lunar astronaut. Similarly, Ismail Zain in 1983 had hinted at this new Malay dilemma in his aptly-titled The De-tribalisation of Tam binte Che Lat. An old Malay woman from the kampung, pictured in the foreground, is surrounded in a new urbanised middle-class home environment, amidst the trappings of the new cultural life-style of her children, that she now co-habits with uncomfortably. It is a world of new dislocating realities for the older Malay generation. The noted photographer Ismail Hashim has also often commented on the changes happening within the local Malay rural environment. His Pemajuan, 1986 is a statement on the disappearance of the authentic rural kampungs, as a result of new developmental and modern housing projects. The image of this particular kampung, stripped bare, has to do, ironically, with the creation of a new golf course in Penang. The social dislocations have also been commented on by the younger Malay artists as well, often with humour and sometimes with acute pain. Omar Din’s Between Two Servings, 1992 alludes to two culinary habits in the new Malay world nowadays, namely, that of the nasi lemak stalls and older habit of eating with hands and the contrasting fork and spoons and sleek wine glasses of the new coffee house culture of the new, posh hotels and the new middle-class Malay life style. The impact of the global popular mass-culture and pop culture on the Malay psyche has been commented upon by the late Ismail Zain in his computerised print showing the Erwings of the TV Series Dallas, posing before a traditional Malaccan Malay house. Raja Shariman's depictions of the Malay Silat warrior, as portrayed in his metal sculptures, are depersonalised, dehumanised entities, nearer to the cyborg world of the science fiction movies than to the older, flesh and blood, feudal world of the legendary Malay warriors Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat. The new urbanized realities of unmarried mothers, abandoned babies, abused children, drug addiction, and the problems of young disaffected Malay urban youth, in more recent times, has been commented upon realistically and powerfully by Bayu Utomo Radjikin and other Malay artists. These works project another view of the contemporary Malay socio-cultural dilemma. Malay cultural identity is oviously not monolithic. Like the other ethnic cultures in this country, it is undergoing radical changes as a consequence of rapid progress. The issue of defining cultural identity is obviously getting even more complex for all Malaysians, including the visual artists, as they all arrive at the new portals of the wired-up and computerised, post-modernist Global Village of the new century. And, an essential part of this new post-modernist, globalised cultural paradigm, ironically enough, is that it is founded on the new, more challenging notion and recognition of multi-ethnic and multi-cultural realities!


"The Abuse Victim"　Bayu Utomo Radjikin　1994

　　What is becoming clear about the Malaysian art scene today is that it is a very much more complex and sophisticated scene, when compared to that of the immediate post-National Cultural Congress period of the 1970s. There are many local art colleges today, so many trained fine artists, many serious art books and art critical publications, many commercial art galleries and many art patrons and art collectors. The works of our artists are also being collected by foreign museums and people outside the country. Our more serious artists are now also winning international awards. What seems interesting is the emergence, since the early 1990s, of a new generation of younger Malaysian fine artists. These younger artists have been exposed to the new, more radical methods of art teaching that have been introduced in the art colleges. Their perceptions clearly differ from that of the older generation of artists, educated during the Sixties and Seventies. These new artists reflect new creative approaches. Post-modernist ideas have permeated art colleges everywhere in the world and altered the very idea of the artist. Syllabuses have been dramatically overhauled in art colleges and a multi-disciplinary, comparative approach of cultural and liberal studies has been substituted. And, the very notion of artistic activity has taken on new meaning, as a consequence. Not the least of these is the consideration of historical, societal and linguistic influences as vital ingredients of the art making process. The earlier mythification of the artist as a uniquely inspired self-centred genius, has been debunked today. All historical and cultural myths are subject to re-questioning today. The new artist must now understand the nature of cultural discourses and the way cultural signs and mythic values are manipulated by hegemonic power groups. Discourse rather than style has become the big defining word in artistic activity today. Artists must intervene in the value-making process and in the re-defining of socio-cultural contexts. And, if necessary, the creative artist should attempt to deconstruct entrenched cultural systems in order to liberate thinking processes. A more conceptual approach has, as a result, emerged within the local art scene today, challenging previous definitions of what art and artists should be about. A more socially committed artist has clearly emerged in this country since the early l990s, employing provocative, confrontational and re-questioning approaches in his creativity. Similarly, the new interest in multi-dimensional artistic installations and electronic video presentations signal new, significant areas of artistic exploration and expression.

"Sing A Song For Ah Kong And Ah Ma"　Liew Kungyu　1994

The emergence of these new younger generation artists during the 1990s has also signalled a new, healthy, regenerative return to figurative art concerns and realism. Abstract art impulses, which had dominated the art scene for so long, are now on the decline. Younger artists are looking at the real world, dealing with it realistically and also re-questioning it. Given the nature of the multi-ethnic reality of the contemporary Malaysian situation, it is only to be expected that alternative artistic perceptions and re-definitions of the issue of national cultural identity will emerge. And these perceptions may not be in tandem with politically dominant officially-sponsored Malay-Islamic perceptions. They may be reactionary and in Opposition to the officially prescribed idea of cultural identity and an officially politicised version of Malaysian history even. Marginalisation will and does encourage reactions on the part of those artists who feel ethnically marginalised. And this has happened in recent years with the emergence of a significant number of younger non-Malay artists who have consciously projected non-Malay themes and issues in their art works.

"Kdek, Kdek, Ong"　Hasnul Jamal Saidon　1994

The beginnings of this impulse is traceable to the early 19905 and after. It was initially connected to the Malaysian Institute of Art, (or MIA) a private art school set up by the Chinese community. The MIA art college is filled with a Chinese staff and Chinese students for the most part. The presence of the newly-returned U.S. trained artist, Wong Hoy Cheong, at the MIA, during the early 1990s, as a teacher, proved consequential to the search for a more assertive Chinese-ness. This search for a Non-Malay point of view may be viewed as a counterpoint to the Malay-Islamic impulses. Wong’s initial major work, a video installation produced in 1990 untitled Sook Ching dealt with the atrocities of the Japanese occupation, suffered by all Malaysians. The artists’ attempt to construct a more composite, multi-ethnic history was very obvious. All the races were featured in his video installation. Old men and women, of all races, recounted their painful experiences. It projected a historical narrative that was multi-ethnic in its orientations. All Malaysians had suffered. All Malaysians are the real heroes of modern Malaysian history!


"Sook Ching"Wong Hoy Cheong1990

　　Wong Hoy Cheong's Migrant Series produced during the mid-1990s was a tour de force, consisting of more than fifteen large black and white paintings documenting the rich history of the Chinese community in this country. It was clearly the younger Chinese generation's call for a reconsideration of modern Malaysian history itself. The Migrant Series had highlighted the drama of the Chinese diaspora and the indelible Chinese contributions to the building of this modern nation. It highlighted the contributions of the "Others". Other younger Chinese artists belonging to his generation have also reacted to the overt Malay-Islamic tendencies and the sense of being marginalised by the new politicised processes. They have made attempts to project the Chinese point of view. Examples include Kung Yu Liew's Hungry Ghost Festival and Chengbeng Festival. Tan Chin Kuan's To Know Malaysia Is To Love Malaysia depicts a Kafka-like, haunted, depersonalised landscape of images featuring the faces of young alienated Chinese youth. The painting's title was taken from a popular Malaysian tourist campaign jingle, boasting a happy, multi-racial Malaysia. The emergence of angst in the works of the younger artist is telling. Leong Chee Siong'’s Who are We, Where do We come from and Where are We going? is another recent work by a younger Chinese artist raising questions about identity in this country. The artist appears in the work, standing alongside another marginalised figure, an Orang Asli. The stream of life separates the two. Both figures confront the viewer's eyes frontally. Sylvia Goh's nostalgic recreations of the vanishing Baba-Nyonya world are founded on her own rich memories drawn from her own life experiences . Eng Hwee Chu's feminist painting titled Black Moon is a subtle statement of two kinds of Malaysian womenhood. Her tee-shirt clad self portrait, in the pose of undressing herself, is juxtaposed against a fully veiled, woman clad in black, in the background, seated just behind her. It is a poignant, younger female artist’s view of the country’s complex ethnic and religious cultural problems today.　

Around the same time, a younger generation Indian artist, J. Anurendra had produced stark images about the Indian condition. He has produced images of Indian festivals and also of a more stark picture of the poverty and social ills that have beset the marginalised working class Tamil community me of the most powerful figurative art works in the story of modern Malaysian art, to date. And they also include powerful images of that other usually forgotten half of our nation, namely, the East Malaysians. These new images celebrating the rich culture of the Dayaks especially, have come from Malaysian artists who have come to Kuala Lumpur from East Malaysia. Among these artists may be included Bayu Utomo Radjikin, Kelvin Chap, and Shia Yih Ying.

"Immunity"　Zulkifli Yusoff　1993