Exhibition Of Art From Malaysia

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32349, 15 July 1970, Page 12

Exhibition Of Art From Malaysia

An “Exhibition of Art from Malaysia" at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery covers a wide variety of media, style and standard in 136 works contributed by SO artists. . A catalogue note explains that the development of fine arts, such as painting and sculpture, has occurred in Malaysia only in the last 20 years and in fact parallels Malaysia's emergence into full national independence, when the “spirit of freedom dramatically exploded in all forms of creative artistic expression.” The lack of a tradition in painting and sculpture has left artists free to move in any artistic style they choose resulting in a sometimes curious mingling of eastern vision with western techniques. A Western European form of expressionism can be found in the work of Abdul Latiff. Yan Gook Leong, Yeo Hoe Keon, Yeo Hoe Koon and Yeoh Hin Leng. Latiff's paintings are particularly deserving of attention; freely painted, they explore the grotesque and fanciful in an imaginary plant world.

A primitive and deceptively simple Matisse-like fauve style emerges several times throughout the exhibition but no more clearly than in the acrylic paintings of Cheong Laitong. Nos. 16 to 20. Looking almost unfinished Laitong's work has about it a childlike integrity that transcends the paint American abstract expressionism has made an impact, too, among Malaysian painters; Khalil Ibrahim and Lim Tong Juan both have entries that are expressive of the joyful use of paint for its own sake.

Sculpture does not figure widely in the exhibition and where metal has been used the results are generally heavy and obvious. Much of the wood carving is little more than ornamental arrangements of birds and monkeys—No. 93 “Animal Kingdom” by Mudu Machays, for example. Two carved wood pieces by Chim Choon Sang of folding and enfolded forms, No’s 25 and 26 deserve some attention, perhaps as much for the carver’s energy as for his ideas. No. 58, an etching by Ismail Zain, is. the best in the field of print making which forms a minor section of the exhibition. Traditional Chinese paint-

ing style, using Chinese ink on rice paper, is employed by some artists and while it looks strange compared direct with Western painting styles, a link between the two is provided by the rich and beautiful batik work which has been taken far beyond a merely decorative level. Batik is a wax and dye process usually used on silk: it can as these Malaysians demonstrate be used in a completely abstract way or a highly detailed and pictorial way. Chuah Thean Teng has used the process to create a cheeky Piccasso-style goat in No. 32 “Animal.” Perhaps the most subtle and mysterious of the batik exhibits are the abstracts of Seah Kim Joo which would not lose in comparison to some of the light experiments of the Space Age Exhibition. Naturally in an exhibition of this size, coming from one « source, there is a great deal < that could well have been • left behind. It will however » be interesting to . see what • styles emerge and what tra- * ditions in the fine arts will % develop as they surely must, S in another 20 years of t Malaysia's development as a 4 nation.—G.T.M.