The Ambition of Ambitious Alignment: A Reflection by a Mid-Career Art Historian

"Ambitious Alignment~: New Hi1:.'lories of Southeas1 Asian Art"1 h. a research programme funded through Getty Foundation's Connecting Art Hislories initiative for the period 2015-2016, and initiated by the Po\·ver Inslitute Foundation for Art & Visual Culture at the University of Sydney. The idea of the programme was initially mooted and developed through a series of plannir.g meetings in 2012, also supported by the Connecting Art Hislories initiative. The meeting!> involved invesligator'> from Sydney University, the programme's c:teering committee,~ and the programme's regional partners, namely, Tnslitut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) and National Gallery Singapore (NGS). The application for Ambitious Alignment..' was finally approved and granted in 2014 for a period of two yearc;. The success of this grant allowed smaller mobility grants to be awarded to fifteen early career researchers to enable them to conduct their archival research projects based on their proposals that had been approved. A significant portion of the grant was also used to fund invesligators, field experts and research participants to attend series of meetings, workshops and public events in Sydney, Bandung and Singapore in 2015 and 2016

Malay and Islam-Centric national narratives: modern art in Malaysia during the 1980s

THE 1971 NATIONAL CULTURE CONGRESS could be seen as the first official attempt to shape arts and culture in Malaysia. Inspired by increasingly pro-Malay government policies, Malay intellectuals convened at the University of Malaya in August that year to formulate the country’s policy on national culture. Three principles were established, namely, ‘Malaysian National Culture must be based on the indigenous culture of the people from the region’; ‘Elements from other cultures that are deemed proper and appropriate can be integrated as parts of the National Culture’; and ‘Islam as an important element in forming the national culture’. Perhaps more influential than the National Culture Congress in arts and culture was a rise in Islamic consciousness and policies from the mid-1970s onwards in Malaysia

Reading Painting as Visual Autobiography: Peranakan Paintings by Sylvia Lee Goh

Sylvia Lee Goh had her first solo show in May 1998 at the Creative Center of the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur in an exhibition entitled “Two Decades of Art from the Heart”. Having partaken in more than 50 exhibitions locally and abroad, Sylvia's works exemplify a captured and frozen moment in time of the Peranakan life and social legacy. The Peranakans, otherwise known as the Babas and Nyonyas, is a conspicuous group of acculturated Chinese in Malaya, particularly in the Straits Settlements (Penang, Malacca and Singapore) hence its other name, the Straits Chinese. For the last 30 years, Sylvia Lee Goh's paintings, as I deliberate in this paper capture and encapsulate her own memories and personal narratives in the form of her own visual autobiographical paintings

Art criticism versus art writing: the Malaysian situation

This paper discusses the state of art criticism and art writing in Malaysia. Although Malaysian artists have moved into contemporary art practices, the exhibition strategies adopted by private galleries, including the national gallery have not changed significantly for the last fifty years. Curatorial practices have been regarded as unimportant, resulting in repetitive and limited ways of presenting art works. Consequently, art exhibitions tend to be a cluster of work assembled in gallery premises, and usually connected by very loose themes. Often art essays are published in conjunction with the exhibitions. Since research papers on contemporary art are limited, the essays or writings published in the exhibition catalogues become an important source of reference on Malaysian art, and they have been referred to as "art writings". Besides the lack of proper "art writing", there is also a problem with "art criticism" in the country. The lack of professional art critics and the multiple roles played by writers, artists, art historians and arts manager are among the main reasons for the present art criticism and art writing scenario in the country

The environment as a theme in Malaysian art

In recent decades in Malaysia, the subject of environment consciousness has become one of the main issues that has been raised by many people in Malaysia, from Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) to various government bodies. In various ways, Malaysian artists have been affected by their realisation of the degradation of environmental qualities since the last thirty years. As such, this paper will focus and discuss more on the younger generation of artists such as Ahmad Shukri Mohamed, Nirmala Shanmughalingam, Redza Piyadasa, Bayu Utomo Radjikin, Ilham Fadhly Mohd Shaimy, Hamir Soib, Kok Yew Puah, Wong Hoy Cheong, etc. They are among the few artists that have been producing works that are either directly or indirectly addressing this significant issue in their artworks. This paper will discuss their works especially those that are visual documents of the thoughts and feelings of the Malaysian artists on urbanization process and environmental changes in relation to the increasing awareness and interests on environmental concerns following rapid urbanization in Malaysia. Apart from this, this paper will also discuss, the awareness of the issue itself as the main theme and subject selected by the artists; and secondly, the materials of the artworks themselves as tools or examples of how art work should lead by example, namely by using recycled materials, etc

Diversification of Malaysian art (1990s- 201Os)

The development of arts in Malaysia during the 1970s and the 1980s has been directly or indirectly influenced by the Malaysian government policy since late 1969s. As a result, the development of Malaysian art during the two decades were highly influenced by the National Economic Policy (NEP), National Cultural Policy and the subsequent Islamization Policy spearheaded by the government

Absenteeism of Malaysian identity in art in the early years of independence

This paper discusses the shaping of modern art identity in Malaysia during the 1950s and 1960s. It frames or investigates the development of modern art in terms of Malaysia’s plural society. While writings by Malaysian art historians such as Redza Piyadasa highlights that Malaysian modern art only in terms of its linear development, this paper attempts to discuss the early development of modern art in Malaysia as being influenced either directly or indirectly by the political and social conditions of Malaysia, therefore shifting ways of investigating Malaysia art in a wider context of Malaysia’s cultural and plural studies. Focusing on Malaysian fine arts in the 1950s and 1960s, this paper suggests the ways that Malaysia’s early form of plural society had influenced the early modern art development among artists in groups such as the Nanyang, Wednesday Art Group (WAG) and Angkatan Pelukis Semenanjung (APS)

Ismail Zain: Pendekatan Ambivalen Dan Peralihan Ke Arah Seni Pascamoden / Ismail Zain: The Ambivalence Approach and His Shift Towards The Postmodern

Kertas ini akan membincangkan beberapa hasil kerja Ismail Zain dalam dalam konteks pendekatan seni dan estetika ambrvalen yang lebih luas yang boleh disarankan untuk pembacaan karya-karya awal beliau sebelum "Digital Collage" (1988) / This paper will d1scuss a few works of Ismail Zain in the larger context of ambivalent aesthetics and artisttc approach that can be suggested m the readmg of h1s earlier works prior to Dig1tal Collage (1988)

Ismail Zain - the ambivalence approach and his shift towards The postmodern

This paper will discuss a few wori(s of Ismail Zain in the larger context of ambivalent aesthetics and artistic approach that can be suggested in the reading of his earlier wort<s prior to ·Digital Collage" (1988}. Ismail Zain (1930 - 1991}, was born in Alar Setar, Kedah and educated at Ravensbourne College of Art. United Kingdom and Slade School of Art. London Unive~jty. He was the former Director of the Malaysia's National Art Gallery; Director-General of Culture, Ministry of Culture. Youth and Sports; and Director-General of tha National Film Development Corporation (FINAS}. Despite his demanding and hectic career, Ismail zaon was never out of touch from the Malaysian art world and in his life. he has produced a significant number of art wort<s that holds great importance in the Malaysian art history developmenl This first part of thos paper will discu&S Ismail Zain's works that employs the ornate and floral motives and how his works need to be contextualised and understood within the inclinations or Malay/Islamic-centred art inherent during the 1970s and 1980s and also within the incoming of postmodem art tendencies in Malaysia. Hence, I argue here that through these works he negotiated his artistic and aesthetics position within these two proclivities. The second part o f this paper will discuss briefly the artistic strategies of his more renowned work in the context of postmodern art approach