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Internationalising Arts, Gaining Visibility: Internationalisation of the National Art Gallery through the Promulgation of the Malayan Identity and Commonwealth Ideals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2021

Sarena Abdullah Open the ORCID record for Sarena Abdullah [Opens in a new window]
Sarena Abdullah*
Affiliation:
School of Arts, Universiti Sains Malaysia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: sarena.abdullah@usm.my
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Abstract

The early history of the Malaysian National Art Gallery has been thoroughly elucidated through many different sources but its role as promoter of Malaysia’s art in the first ten years of its early formation have never been critically examined. This paper will trace the transnational relationship of the National Art Gallery through its exhibitions co-organised with the Commonwealth Institute in London within the larger context of the post-World War II period and the British decolonisation in Malaya. This paper will situate and contextualise its research on Malaya’s early exhibition history on multiculturalism and the Malayan identity framework, and later draw the link and connection between the Commonwealth Institute and the context of its establishment in Britain and the establishment of the National Art Gallery in Malaya. Subsequently, this paper will trace and demonstrate the importance of these early exhibitions to be understood in the larger context of (a) the need to exert international visibility during the period of Confrontation and (b) the exhibition as a platform that mooted the Malayan identity that aligns with the core values and principles of the Commonwealth. As such, this paper demonstrates that the transnational relations between the National Art Gallery and the Commonwealth Institute in the realm of Malaysia’s exhibition history must be analysed in tandem with the issues that are faced by a new British Commonwealth country, i.e., Malaysia during the immediate post-war period.

Keywords

National Art Gallery MalaysiaCommonwealth InstituteMalayan Identitymulticulturalism
Type
Original Article
Information
TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , May 2022 , pp. 3 - 17
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Institute for East Asian Studies, Sogang University

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