The styles of contemporary Malaysian paintings in the 1990s / Nurul Huda Mohd Din

The researcher has been intrigued by the term 'era pluralis' that she read in a promotional book, 'ILHAM 92' for an art exhibition organized by the Faculty of Art & Design, Institiut Teknologi MARA (now Universiti Teknologi MARA) in 1992. Upon further reading, she was inspired to conduct a study based on the terminology. As explained by Muliyadi Mahamood (now Dr.) the early 1990s decade was termed as the pluralist era based on the variety of styles in terms of approaches and media used in art to express certain ideas. The main objectives in this research were firstly, to analyse the various styles of contemporary art in Malaysia in the 1990s and secondly, to offer a methodology in analyzing, elaborating and classifying the styles. For this purpose, the researcher has selected 17 contemporary paintings of Malaysian artists for this study. The paintings were chosen based on the consistencies of the artists in producing works of that particular genre within the decade of the 1990's. She has also included a brief explanation on the development of the art styles in Malaysia beginning from the preIndependence days. In order to conduct the analysis, the researcher has adopted the Theory on Style by Meyer Schapiro and the analysis approach of Erwin Panofsky as the methodologies of this study. The various styles were firstly categorized into three main groups, which are the Ethnic, Islamic and Western styles of painting. The ethnic style is that which incorporates ethnic elements. The Islamic style is that which is infused with Islamic characteristics whilst the Western style is any other styles different from the previous two and is more universal in nature. The results of the analysis showed that of the 17 paintings, seven were classified in the ethnic style, two were Islamic and the other eight as western. Based on the findings, the researcher can safely conclude that the methodologies used in this study are reliable for the purpose of discussions on the paintings