An Analysis Study on Printmaking Artwork with the National Cultural Identity Theme in Malaysia

Date : 23 - 26 February 2010, Location : Pulau Pinang

Azian bte Haji Tahir
Rosiah bte Mat Noor

ABSTRACT

The practice of printmaking in Malaysia started since the British Colonial era, Bastin and Rohatgi (2003), mentioned in their research that the printing discipline in Malaysia has been around since 1786. Artist at that time have used printing as a part of technique to re-transfer the beauty of the Malaysia panorama. In Malaysia contemporary art, the printing method had re-emerged as a practice since the era of Nanyang Academy. In the 1960s after the formal art education have been introduce, a lot of Malaysian Artist have been educated form overseas and they are active with the printing method until this present time. Throughout those years the development of printmaking has been evolving from ordinary local community theme such as the panorama to more challenging theme. In 1971, again this presentation pattern of printmaking has changed; it is due to the guideline introduced by government, The National Culture Congress (NCC). Generally, the Malaysian artists have responded to it, the NCC has given the artist the direction that led to the search for a national identity, from it the artist can produce their printmaking with various styles and themes that revolved around the national cultural identity. The objective of the study is to unravel the aspects of ‘form’ and ‘meaning’ in the chosen printmaking artwork that use cultural theme to provide detailed information with easy statement and indicator of their work development from theme aspect and manipulation on the work of art. Research method to employ in this writing is the qualitative approach through design ‘Content Analysis’. All printmaking chosen are predicated cultural theme base from the three principles and analyzed with the guided of the ‘Organic Unity’ theory.

Keywords: Analysis printmaking, Malaysia cultural, National identity.