PROF GORGE WESSALA* WROTE ABOUT MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART, UM
Technocrats with Art Sense: The Asian Art Museum
(Muzium Seni Asia), Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia[1]
The collection at the Museum of Asian Art (Muzium Seni Asia, MSA)[2]
is located inside the campus of Malaysia’s oldest University, Universiti Malaya
(UM). The roots of the Museum can be traced to the establishment in 195/45 of
the Asian Art Museum at the then
University of Malaya located in Singapore. Until 1969, the collection was
housed in Singapore, and a substantial number of artifacts (collections 1-3) remain
in the museum of the National University of Singapore (NUS)[3].
At the time of writing, UM was the only University in Malaysia to own such a
museum. It holds four paintings by M.F. Husain. The UM Museum of Asian Art
appropriately complements the presence of the Asia-Europe Institute (Institut
Asia-Eropah - see Chapter Seven) nearby at the University, since both
institutions have a tangible concern with matters of ‘exchange’, ‘learning’,
‘cultures’ and ‘creativity’.
The purpose of the UM collection is pedagogic, and the objects on
display here adhere to the narrative which also underlies the predominant
political discourse of modern Malaysia, focusing on the country as a modern, multi-cultural,
nation, embracing Chinese, Indian, Malay and Tribal heritage. In the director’s
own words, MSA is pursuing an academic ideal aiming at the creation of a more
holistic education for students here: ‘technocrats with an art-sense’ was how
he phrased it. This holistic-pedagogic theme can be detected also in the
National Museum of Malaysia (Muzium Negara)
in Kuala Lumpur[4].
Although the museum does not, at first sight, disclose a strong narrative of
Europe-Asia relations, it nevertheless allows many glimpses at the history of
the trading networks, routes and hubs, which bound the Malay world to Europe,
the Middle East and Persia, and to China, Korea and Japan.
It is thus, perhaps indirectly, in the remarkable ceramics and
porcelain collections of this site that a history of East-West aesthetics,
trade, imitation and influence is subtly revealed, through the display of
export-oriented wares which were, of course, based on perceptions of what was, and
what was not, considered ‘fashionable’, ‘saleable’, or ‘tasteful’ in markets
such as Europe. Next to social strata and market forces, what is also reflected
in the displays of Muzium Seni Asia
is the effect of the Asian politics of the past on Europe, through the character
of ceramics. For example, against the background of an unstable situation in
China following the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, the Dutch traders, who were
the key carriers of Chinese porcelain to Europe at the time, began to encourage
new Japanese artists, instead of the traditional Chinese ones, to produce
export ware such as Kakiemon (see
above). An augmented Japanese porcelain manufacture, in turn, was one of the
enablers of later Dutch-Japanese mercantile, scientific and cultural contacts
(see Chapter Four).
At MSA, one example of inter-continental artistic patterns ‘crossing
over’ (in more ways than one), is the museum’s delicate Kraak ware,[5]
a kind of Chinese export-porcelain, produced mainly during the reign of the
Wanli Emperor (1563-1620), and until around 1640. It was among the first
Chinese export porcelain ware to arrive in Europe in large quantities, and can
frequently be seen in Dutch still-life paintings of ‘foreign luxuries’. MSA has
a significant collection of around 280 Malay Kendi (from Sanskrit: kundika,
‘pure-water-dropper’) ritualistic drinking vessels. Kendi are unique and embody the ‘local genius’ of Malay invention.
They also testify to a busy technology-transfer and trade with Europe, Siam,
China and Vietnam through entrepôts such as Johor, Malacca and Ayutthaya (see
Chapter One). By showcasing a wealth of other ‘inter-cultural’ objects as
diverse as jars from Martaban (in modern Burma/ Myanmar) and European plates
with Arabic calligraphy designs (UM 76.12), the MSA exhibits in Kuala Lumpur
speak eloquently of trade-routes, profits, networks and entrepôt bases which
developed into meeting places of cultures, bearing testimony of fashions of
mercantilism, as well as changing mindsets. The MSA website explains:
This porcelain eventually lost its
popularity towards the end of the 17th century during the transition period
between the Ming and the Ching Dynasty. With the English taking over the trade
with China, products from the Jingdezhen kilns began to face competition from
manufacturers in Swatow, whose products were relatively cheaper and bore newer
designs known as san sui or willow pattern. Traces of this porcelain were
discovered in areas along the silk routes (sea) such as the coasts of Africa,
Middle Asia, Kamakura in Japan, the Philippines, the Pahang River, Tioman
Island, Kota Tinggi and Johor Lama in Johor and also in Kedah (source: http://www.um.edu.my/museum/).
When I met the director of the MSA on 15 March 2013, I queried him
about what the museum’s exhibits can reveal in the context of a ‘European
Studies in Asia’ academic discipline. In response, Dr
Abd Aziz Rashid mentioned Portuguese and English influence on indigenous ite polang putang (duck) wood-carving
patterns, or on Malay floral porcelain designs (bakul pung) to render them less repetitive. Much of this influence
would have been mediated through the port city of Malacca, captured by the
Portuguese in 1511. Last but not least, almost as a footnote, it is
revealing that, next to European figurines (e.g. UM), the Muzium Seni Asia collection also displays a small statue of a
‘Central Asiatic Foreigner’ (UM 58.19) - possibly originating from the Sogdian
Empire (see Chapter Two).
* Prof Wessala is a adjunct professor at the University of Malaya, till end of 2014.
* Prof Wessala is a adjunct professor at the University of Malaya, till end of 2014.
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