This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on February 17, 2020
KUALA LUMPUR: Four artworks dropped from Ahmad Fuad Osman’s ongoing exhibition at the National Art Gallery (NAG) have been reinstated in the latest development to the art censorship drama around the event.
In a statement announcing the decision, NAG said an additional “support programme” would be held on Friday involving the artist and guest curator Shabbir Hussain Mustafa. The gallery urged the public not to miss the exhibition entitled At The End Of The Day Even Art Is Not Important (1990-2019).
According to a source, the directive to reinstate Ahmad Fuad’s works came not from NAG but the ministry of tourism, arts and culture (Motac) as well as Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail on Saturday, though this was to be kept under wraps.
Earlier last week, Motac Deputy Minister Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik had issued an appeal letter to NAG in support of Ahmad Fuad and the reinstatement of the artworks, though he said it was in his personal capacity.
In the letter, he described the exhibition as “international class” and urged respect for the freedom of expression.
While the restoring of Ahmad Fuad’s artworks would be welcomed by the arts community following the uproar over the censorship, it remains to be seen if “Balai”, as NAG is informally known as, will survive unscathed this time around.
It may not be the first time NAG has removed artworks from its exhibitions, though the pulling of Ahmad Fuad’s works has provoked unabating outrage since the action came to light last Monday. On Saturday, 55 art collectors signed a petition stating that they would not loan any works from their private collections to NAG in the future if they are to be subjected to censorship by the institution.
Prominent collectors Pakharuddin Sulaiman and Bingley Sim were among the most vocal, demanding on their social media platforms for the return of their loans for Ahmad Fuad’s show. Pakharuddin has six of Ahmad Fuad’s works on display, one of which is among those taken down.
A public petition in support of Ahmad Fuad had also received 396 signatures from those within and outside the visual arts community, with rights groups such as National Human Rights Society decrying NAG’s decision.
After an emergency meeting by the members of its National Visual Arts Development Board, gallery owner Richard Koh, who has been a member of the board since 2018, resigned from his position in protest of the lack of action taken by NAG prior to their decision to reinstate the pieces.
Koh stated, “After hearing and witnessing the arguments for the decision with regard to the works and the chain of events that has happened, I find it very disturbing that mistakes are not admitted and actions are not accounted for.”
Things first came to light when Ahmad Fuad, a multidisciplinary mid-career artist, wrote an open letter to NAG on social media to call out their yanking of the works from his retrospective show on Feb 4, which he deemed “arbitrary, unjustified and an abuse of institutional power”.
He objected to the lack of transparency and accountability by NAG in the matter, the decision of which was undertaken after a board member lodged a complaint on their purportedly “political and obscene” nature.
Replying to the open letter, NAG director general Amerruddin Ahmad then issued a statement declaring that the removal of the works was within the gallery’s jurisdiction, claiming that they had the right to take down any works that touch on the “dignity of any individual, religion, politics, race, culture and country”.
He further added: “An exhibition is a process and not a final product, and even if the exhibition is ongoing, this process continues, in order to obtain suitable maturity for visitors and our society”. This statement led to further outcry and anger.
It was also revealed that following an emergency meeting held last Thursday, the board and relevant stakeholders had initially agreed to reinstate three of the four works, leaving Imitating The Mountain (2004), a painting that features nudity. Interestingly, there are other artworks on display that contain nudity as well.
Amerruddin informed Ahmad Fuad of the decision after the meeting, but the artist did not agree to anything less than a full reinstatement, and once again requested for the exhibition to be closed with immediate effect.
With this reversal by NAG, at least the exhibition, which has been ongoing since October 2019, and extended till Feb 29 at NAG’s request, will now run its course.