IT’S not often you see a moody-looking Malaysian artist staring at passers-by from an upstairs window in downtown Zagreb, Croatia. The Museum of Arts and Crafts made a special effort for this exhibition, and it was noticed by the locals. Strangely, it didn’t make an impression on the artist’s home country. Maybe if Malaysians had seen the cleverly placed promotional poster looming over them in Bukit Bintang, it would have caused more of a stir. Instead, the nation was entertained by online images of Godzilla, King Kong and politicians’ wives looming out of the sinkhole in Jalan Imbi.
Syed Ahmad Jamal was one of the first artists to win a datukship but his distinction is more considerable than that. Through this exhibition, he has posthumously taken the cause of Malaysian art further than any other ambassador of the genre. Guru of Colour (or Guru Boje in Croatian) is the first exhibition of a Malaysian artist’s work at a national-level museum in Europe and probably in the entire world.
Croatia has been associated with culture and the good life since the time of the Romans, who took to holidaying there. Wars have disturbed the routine occasionally. Neighbouring Serbia, however, is not known for much else apart from warfare and Wimbledon tennis winners. This year marks the 100th anniversary of a Serb starting World War I by shooting the Archduke of Austria and his wife.
Back in gracious Zagreb, it seems appropriate that the Malaysian artist who has created an impression should be Syed Ahmad Jamal. A gentleman artist, he was also something of a nationalist. Unlike Gavrilo Princip, the Serb-supremacist assassin of the Archduke, Syed Ahmad Jamal’s cause was to create a cultural identity for the newly formed nation that would become Malaysia.
It’s rare to see so many of this artist’s works in one place, wherever the place happens to be. There was a major retrospective at Balai Seni Lukis a few years ago, but this display takes his paintings to a new level. The gallery itself gives a presence to the content that is hard to replicate in a modern environment. It’s a truly historic building in a city with a strong sense of aesthetics. Syed Ahmad Jamal’s oeuvre fits effortlessly into a traditional setting despite the artist’s modernising mission.
The contents have come from numerous collectors and institutions. In another first for Guru Warna, paintings have been sent overseas by galleries that have never done so before. The National Art Gallery, Galeri Petronas and the Bank Negara Museum and Art Gallery have all participated in this vanguard project to take the best of Malaysia to an audience that is immersed in art but unaware of the quality that exists in Southeast Asia. From Malaysia to Southeast Europe is a long way, and to the east of Croatia a political tragedy is now unfolding that could end up rivalling the wars between Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia two decades ago.
The first international casualty in Ukraine has been a Malaysian aircraft. In the previously war-torn Balkans, there has been the triumph of a Malaysian art exhibition instead. Paintings that look impressive in a local setting become breathtaking when seen in the 19th surroundings of the Museum of Arts and Crafts, Zagreb. The setting is reminiscent of the Louvre, and somewhat more exhilarating when the bold canvases of Syed Ahmad Jamal are contrasted with the dry academic feel of the paintings that usually occupy spaces such as these, especially the acres of allegorical scenes on view at the Louvre.
A number of serial works have been reunited, the most exciting of which must be the Langit dan Bumi masterpieces. If anything deserves the somewhat tired label “iconic”, it would have to be these enormous paintings that are overwhelming when seen individually. Put three of them together from different sources and the viewer is privileged to witness an awe-inspiring triptych.
The sense in which they are iconic is their reference to passages in the Quran, for which they serve as a visual reminder of the majesty of God’s bounty. With sizes approaching three metres in width, this series is physically engrossing as well as being one of the best evocations ever created of nature condensed in tropical lushness. As with all his works, the Langit dan Bumi series throbs with colour. It is as alive as a pumping heart, with red forming the foundation of each canvas. If one series of paintings had to represent the intensity of nature at the same time as conveying an artist’s deep spirituality, this would be the template for me.
There are some more surprising works on display as well. Away from Syed Ahmad Jamal’s quintessential pyramid shapes and saturated colours is a painting with the ambiguous title ???. Created in 2009, near the end of his life, this vortex of power sucks the viewer in. He has dispensed with the entire spectrum between white and black, creating a canvas that is 183 centimetres of monochrome. It is energy in its most pared-down form: A blinding light that could represent the end of a galaxy in a sci-fi film. It is more likely to embody the feelings of an artist who had been electrifyingly energetic as the end drew near.
At this exhibition it is not just the paintings that speak for the artist. There is an unusually informative and well-presented catalogue that continues the journey of the “guru of colour” well after the show itself has ended, which it did last month. If its travels continue, there might be a greater opportunity to view this titan of Malaysian art in settings that really do the breadth of his work justice. In the meantime, the few paintings that accompany this article should make for an Aidilfitri treat of colour and artistic commitment to religious belief.