Visual & Critical Studies

Art Criticism: The Malaysian Situation

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.

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.

Ahmad Fuad Osman, Ahmad Shukri Mohamed, Bayu Utomo Radjikin, Hamir Soib @ Mohamed and Masnoor Ramli Mahmud the guys who make up theMATAHATI collective are all set for their much talked-about debut to the U.S.

Matahati ke Matadunia or Matahati in the Eyes of the World had premiered at Los Angeles-based gallery DCA Fine Art. This exhibition is crucial stepping stone for bringing their art (and other Malaysian art) to a wider and hopefully accepting audience, happened previously in 2009.

Art Galleries and Spaces in Malaysia: The Current Scenario

NATIONAL VISUAL ART GALLERY, KUALA LUMPUR

The National Visual Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur is the main national institution which has been collecting art works produced by
Malaysian artists for the past 50 years. Although the gallery has existed for slightly more than half a century, the need for a significant national funding to collect, conserve and preserve art works is more often than not being sidelined. It was not until 1998, with the move of the NVAG to its current location that appropriate technical facilities such as conservation and proper storage have been
made possible. And in the last ten years the gallery has had more experts working on its collection, either in terms of research and curatorial services or conservation and preservation.

Visit Visual Art Gallery homepage at http://artgallery.skali.my/en/web/guest/home

GALLERY PETRONAS, KUALA LUMPUR

The main corporate gallery is the Petronas Gallery. Located at the base of the PETRONAS Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, it is fully owned and funded by Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS). The gallery was established in 1993 at the Dayabumi Complex, before being moved to its current location to promote the development and preservation of art in Malaysia.

Visit PETRONAS Gallery at http://www.galeripetronas.com.my/Pages/Home.aspx?MenuId=1

Another institutional gallery is the Penang Art Gallery and Museum which has been acquiring significant artworks produced in the late 19th century as well as a number of recent works, mostly those by Penang artists. Other galleries include the Sabah Art Gallery and the Malacca Art Gallery. All these are state institutions and their effort to collect and exhibit is fairly limited due to their reliance on
government funding which is often quite constrained.

Penang Art Gallery

Sabah Art Gallery

Malacca Art Gallery

Wei-ling Gallery, Pelita Hati, Shalini Ganendra, NN Galery, RA Fine Arts, Taksu Gallery, Galeri Chandan and Valentine Willie Fine Arts (all located in Kuala Lumpur) are among those galleries known to represent or associate themselves with the works of significant Malaysian artists. These galleries have consistently organised exhibitions and sold the works of these artists to collectors.

Galeri Chandan, Bukit Damansara

Taksu Gallery

Besides institutionalised, corporate or commercial galleries, there are also other art spaces, which organise exhibitions, or other art activities and produce art writings in the forms of catalogues, flyers and even pamphlets. These alternatives or independent art spaces and collectives include Matahati, Gudang, The Annexe Gallery, Rumah Frinjan, Rumah Yayasan Kesenian Perak (YKP), Studio in Art Criticisms versus Art Writings 67 Cheras, KL (SiCKL), Findars Space, 12 Art Space, Rumah Air Panas and the Lost Generation Space.

These places offer new alternative venues which enable dialogue with digital media, performance and installation in the context of fine art practices. Most importantly, these spaces are not as market-driven as commercial galleries. Works that are exhibited are more exploratory, unconventional and transdisciplinary in nature, and in some cases, involve community engagement.

12 Art Space

Rumah Air Panas

Besides these significant exhibition spaces, there are also art shops all over Malaysia. It must be noted that these art shops function differently from the “art galleries”, although some of these shops incorporate the term “gallery” in their names. These shops sell artworks, most of which are produced for decorative purposes to adorn interior spaces.

Animalive have produced and installed 6 AnimationBrains with fullbody motioncapture suits for Lat’s Place themed restaurant, Puteri Harbour, Malaysia

Art Writings in Malaysia
As mentioned earlier, despite positive developments in the Malaysian art scene, research and writings on Malaysian modern art are still very limited. It must be noted that these art writings are the kind of literature written about art in Malaysia that have been documented and produced consistently. These art writings can be categorised into several types – first, writings published in art catalogues; second, writings published in art magazines;third, writings published in other types of magazines and newspapers and finally, writings published online.

Art Catalogues

Art Magazines

Art Writing versus Art Criticism

So, what is art criticism and why, despite the progressive unfolding of Malaysian art in the last twenty years or so, does this particular genre of writing not emerge accordingly in the Malaysian art world?

Unlike in America, the published materials on Malaysian art are limited to essays written for exhibition catalogues, newspaper sections, magazine sections and online publications. These publications largely embody generalized and formal analysis of series of artwork, reporting of arts events, personal interviews and profiles of artists. Despite their varieties, these writings fail to incorporate the essential component of art criticism, namely critical discussions of the artwork based on value judgements and evaluations.

a “neutral” gathering and discussion of art works according to themes and genres

There are several reasons why art criticism has not developed in parallel with the development of art in Malaysia.

First, as mentioned earlier, the structure of the Malaysian art world is not complete. Art as an important field of knowledge has not been promoted and supported accordingly in the education system that is founded on the National Economic Policy,in which the weight of science and technology presses on every level of Malaysian life, pushing away the artistic and cultural realm from many government policies and popular consciousness. In the Malaysian education policy itself, there is a huge emphasis for students to major in the Sciences rather than the Arts.

Second, criticism is a genre that is almost non-existent in Malaysian art writings; if there is any (perhaps the weekly art column in Business Times from 1992 until 1996 by Redza Piyadasa is an exception), it is quite unsustainable, and to date there is hardly any serious art critic with a consistent column in the local newspapers, magazines and etc. To date, there are limited writers/journalists who specialise in art criticisms and reviews.

Third, there is also a question of whether the role of an art critic is well understood by the Malaysian artists and public in general. Groys (1997) claimed that the figure of the art critic emerged at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. According to him, the art critic is not regarded as the representative of the art world but strictly as an outside observer whose
function is to judge and criticise works of art in the name of the public. Therefore, judgements that are made by any art critic must bear no obligation to the artists.

In the Malaysian situation,it is art writing, not art criticism, that persists, and judgement has never been the key objective of art writing.

However, where the assertion of judgement by an art critic is rare and good academic papers on art is similarly limited, the roles of
explaining or contextualising art automatically falls on writers and curators instead. This can be made by any publication opportunity that is available, mostly through art catalogues.

On top of that, the Internet, too, offers an important platform for publishing writings either in gallery websites, websites
dedicated to art, web groups, and social networking websites such as Facebook, and blogs. Nevertheless, to examine these online writings (usually published in blogs) and the usage of the Internet as a platform to disseminate information on the arts deems another study on the subject itself.