National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur - A Letdown

If anyone ever pays attention to what I write on my blog, and I hope there's at least one or two who do, then this someone would know that I recently started Postcrossing. This activity has led me to look high and low for postcards, to the point of looking like a tourist in my own country but I digress.

Since I discovered that there are people out there who seriously like art themed cards, I naively thought the best of the National Art Gallery. What was I thinking? Well, I thought... it definitely will not be able to meet the standard of the Tate, Guggenheim or The Met, all of which I have visited in recent years, but it should at least have an acceptable collection and perhaps an okay gallery shop?

So lets start on my journey. I called a friend who is free, arranged a date and off we went in high spirits. There was a camera crew at the entrance shooting scenes for what looks like an MTV but since we had neither recognised the model/singer nor the song, I can't tell you what it is. Other than those people, we did not see any other visitors on our way in.

Oh, I think I forgot to mention, I came to see an exhibition called the Mosaics of Malaysia, held in conjunction with our upcoming National Day celebration. So obviously, I expected to see works by Malaysian artists, about Malaysia, right?

First, a little background, this exhibition was made possible by an art collector from Kedah, who had commissioned a Chinese painter to paint many large scale artworks of various scenery and places of interest in Malaysia throughout the years. According to the NAG people, this exhibition is...

"the continuity of the last My Collection (Koleksi Saya) exhibition which was last exhibited around year 1970’s."

and the NAG is...

"proud to present the “Mosaics of Malaysia” exhibition in conjunction of our nation is celebrating the 35 years relationship between Malaysian-China by exhibiting Zhang Zhou, a very talented artist."

These quotes are taken directly off their website.

Now, I would like to say, his paintings and works are not half bad, there were some brilliant use of colours in my favourite piece out of the lot - a view of KLCC. I am also sure that he is a reasonably talented painter judging by his resume printed on one of the exhibition's introductory story-wall.

My complaint is on the fact that the curator and gallery management used this sorry excuse of a curation and passed it off as held in conjunction with the National Day celebrations in promoting it. The exhibition took up two halls, every single painting was the product of this one man's hand, one hall held various artwork on POIs in Malaysia while, the other hall consists only of his works depicting various places in China and still lifes. An ENTIRE hall, dedicated to his works only, nothing related to Malaysia, and the exhibition is called? Mosaics of Malaysia!

I confess that I wouldn't have minded so much if the title of the exhibition is different, it would also have been excusable if they had excluded all his other non-Malaysia related works from being exhibited and more so if they had just included some works of a Malaysian (even if not a large amount).

More importantly, what I had come to seek, I did not find, the gallery shop offered no postcards for sale. NO POSTCARDS! Easily the cheapest souvenir from any art gallery in the world, light and easy to tote around, an excellent visual reminder of that excellent artwork one had just saw on display, not a single one on sale.