Description

This paper examines the key narratives in the development of Malaysian modern art in the last 100 years. It will start with a discussion on Low Kway Song’s “Portrait of Man in Three Piece Suit with Orchid on Lapel” produced in 1917 and the art scene in Malaya prior to its Independence. Post Independence saw an exposure of Western Abstract Expressionism, albeit in a localized manner, on Malaysian art pioneered by newly returned Malaysian artists from their studies abroad. Such influence could be observed in the works of Syed Ahmad Jamal and Latiff Mohidin. However, the period of late 1970s and throughout 1980s has changed the previous trend, which marked a new turning point in Malaysian art, due to the implementation of the National Cultural Policy and Islamization Policy. Tis was followed by the decade of the 1990s that witnessed a growing Malaysian art scene that led to the produce of artworks that were indirectly conditioned by the ‘postmodern situation’. This paper will conclude with the works of selected Malaysian artists in the current Singapore Biennale: An Atlas of Mirrors (2016).

Sarena Abdullah is a Senior Lecturer at the School of the Arts, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), where she teaches Art History subjects for both undergraduate and graduate class. She has an MA in Art History from the State University of New York, Buffalo, N.Y., U.S.A., and a PhD in Art History (2010) from the University of Sydney, NSW, Australia. Her research interests are contemporary Malaysian and Southeast Asian Art. She has numerous papers published both locally and abroad, and has presented at conferences in Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, the United States and China. She is one of the Field Leader for “Ambitious Alignments: New Histories of Southeast Asian Art,” a research project led by the Power Institute, The University of Sydney and funded by the Getty Foundation in 2015. She was the recipient of the 2016 CAA-Getty Travel Grant as part of the CAA-Getty International Program and will be part of the 2017 CAA-Getty International Reunion Program in February as well.

Description

Borrowing the name of the recent Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library exhibit, , I will consider the visual imagery of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) over a longer period than the “Ten Years of Chaos.” I will look back at some of the earlier, non-revolutionary sources, at the dissemination of those images during the Cultural Revolution, and show some of them in a more recent context. In particular, I will look at some of the most ubiquitous items of the time – for example, the red, bright and shiny Mao badges and the more restrained designs on coins and banknotes. These items were some of the smallest in everyday use, and the imagery on these items can be understood immediately – if you know the visual and political vocabulary.

Helen Wang is Curator of East Asian Money at the British Museum. She is the author of The Chairman Mao Badges: Symbols and Slogans of the Cultural Revolution (based on the British Museum collection of Mao badges). She is also the translator of Cao Wenxuan’s Bronze and Sunflower, a children’s novel set in a rural area during the Cultural Revolution.

Description

In the early years of the Republic the revolutionary Cantonese brush-and-ink painter Gao Jianfu (1879-1951) presented Sun Yatsen, father of the Republic, with an essay in which he argued that porcelain manufacture would save the new nation. Important among Gao’s own porcelain designs was a dish painted with mantises devouring pupa, encircled by a rim ornamented with patterns of stylized fishes, flowers, and birds on a ground much like Japanese shibori tie-dyed textiles. The striking contrast of the decorative rim with the specimen-like insect depiction at the dish’s centre raises questions. How did the rim’s artificial lines mediate the naturalism of the insects to embody Gao’s radical conception of modern design – a design that was more than formal, but social and political as well? And what did it mean for the nation to see and touch insects on their patriotic porcelains? How, in short, was the dish designed and designing?

Lisa Claypool publishes widely on late imperial and Republican-era visual culture and design in China, and has curated and published a series of essays and interviews about contemporary art. She is currently at work on two projects: a book about the mediation of science through the ink brush in early 20th century China, and; an article about curatorial practices of contemporary artists in China.

本人在阿尔伯塔大学主要教授中国艺术方面的课程，并负责大学美术馆的中国古代绘画和艺术藏品的管理和展览. 主要研究方向包括十八世纪之后的中国艺术和现当代视觉文化。目前已有多篇关于博物馆、近现代艺术、展览学以及审美学的文章在重要学术刊物和会议出版物中发表。