Syed Ahmad bin Syed Jamal Sahil (1929-2011), Malaysia’s most prominent National Art Laureate, occupies a special place in the nation’s short history of modern art. Not only did he played a pivotal role as an artist, art educator, writer and tireless promoter especially of the abstract expressionist idiom during the nascent years of artistic developments in the country, he was also a ‘Nationalist’, for lack of a better word, who actively sought to formulate a new visual identity which could reflect the spirit of the people of a newly liberated colony in 1957 (Malaya) from the British as well as the birth of a new country (Malaysia) in 1963. He did this by presenting selected elements from local beliefs, myths and practices with western, modernist tendencies. Though strangely, many have positioned him purely as a champion of traditional arts and crafts, specifically of the Malays, a cursory glance at Syed Ahmad Jamal’s works however reveals an artist with a universal outlook who employs a non traditional approach towards art making.

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With purity of colors and the simplicity of forms, energized by his bold and dynamic strokes, his paintings have a subtle glow, a luminous quality that is both warm and delightful. He consciously limits his pallette to the basic red, yellow and blue, interspersed by a handful of complementary colors, with the results being a tasteful combination calculated to underscore the fundamental foundations behind the perceived universality of his non-representational images. For some, its profundity is stark and immediate upon viewing, while for others it’s energy unfolds serendipitously, when one is ready to “see”. The primary elements in his works vibrates and resonates with the higher senses and spiritual sensibilities. His compositions and expert application of the elements of art based on the principles of art and design is attributed to his training in the west, while the numinous quality detected in his works is the spiritual that is so much a natural part of his being. At the core of almost all of his artistic oeuvre, the allusion to the Creator and his presence in the scheme of things is always present.

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To understand and appreciate the works of this unassuming artist, it is imperative that we consider a number of important factors that has motivated Syed Ahmad Jamal in his more than his five decades as a distinctive figure head in Malaysia’s growing art scene.

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After the communal riots in 1969 led to the introduction of the New Economic Policy and the National Cultural Policy in 1971, Syed Ahmad Jamal presented a paper on art and its functions at the National Cultural Congress held at the University Malaya in August 1971. Well aware that forces of the establishment were beginning to encroach into the domains of the arts with the insidious intent to neuter, domesticate and dictate the outcomes of creativity and artistry to serve its political and parochial agendas, Syed Ahmad Jamal asked, “Is it the role of art to provide beautiful pictures to decorate homes and offices and culture centers? Or is it the role of the artist to challenge himself with the problems of art for art’s sake? One of the most important roles is that art bestows a realization in the other, the observer, for the artist imparts statements alluding to the existence of truth”.

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After hours of deliberations without coming to a consensus between the bureaucrats insistent on subordinating the artists to the will of the establishment and the art practitioners led by Syed Ahmad Jamal who argued for full autonomy to operate and pursue paths truthful to their temperaments, cultural practices and value systems, a vote was called to resolve the impasse. The motion was tabled and the bureaucrats had the majority. The artists stood up and left in protest. 

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The above is just one of the many incidences that highlights Syed Ahmad Jamal’s unwavering commitment and responsibility to his role as an artist, whose self-appointed mission is to “imparts statements alluding to the existence of truth”. And what is “truth” in this context that would compel one to stand up fearlessly against the coercion or the diktats by the representatives of the state?

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That there is a power higher than the ones professed by men.

     

This higher power is represented by the“light”. In various religious and spiritual beliefs, light is a symbol for knowledge of the truth. This knowledge are the testaments contained in scriptures which serves to banish ignorance and illuminate a path that leads men back to their Creator, to the salvation of eternal life or for others, enlightenment from the cycle of pain and suffering. The element of light in many of his paintings alludes to this higher power. Also, for one to begin to be acquainted with this higher power, the first step is to abolish illiteracy. In the Surat Al Alaq, its first five verses are believed by Muslims to be the first verses in the Quran to be revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. It begins by extolling all to “READ!”. It is with this understanding that one can appreciate the role of writing, in this case the Arabic script and calligraphy in transmitting the knowledge and beauty of the Al Mighty. When Syed Ahmad Jamal returned after graduating from Chelsea School of Art, London in the late 1950’s , he began to champion in earnest, abstraction and abstract expressionism as a force of the 1960’s in Malaysia. He would paint sceneries, mundane activities, as well as of everyday people in his non or semi figurative approach. He incorporated even the Jawi, a local script derived from the Arabic Khat, with his bold and energetic gestural approach. However, with his dynamic and non figurative forms, he was accused by some of promoting a western and immodest concept of representation that was alien to the cultural milieu of his country. 

Syed Ahmad Jamal made a spirited defence by presenting the case that abstract expressionism and even action painting as practiced here was in reality, not a borrowed idiom but a direct form of release or catharsis which had developed naturally from the loose atmospheric form of early water color painting techniques, already in practice in the country while under the British as well as employing the rhythm, flow and form found in Islamic and Chinese calligraphy. The non naturalistic and aniconic approach, resulting in highly stylized and decorative arts and crafts of the Malays were due to the prohibition in the Quran. Abstraction and abstract expressionism was therefore seen as dynamic and powerful ways of conveying ideas, messages and emotions while observing the interdiction set by the religion.

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With this understanding firmly in his grasp, Syed Ahmad Jamal proceeded to produce marks, strokes and symbolic forms (both indigenous and universal) on the canvas with a creative zeal guided by his spiritual commitment to make art which gives form to the soul. 

 

​​“Maybe among the observers here, there are those who long for stirring art that give life to conditions. Those who visit surely have his or her own philosophy about art, What is art for? Whom is it for? Is art for community more meaningful that art for art’s sake? Or art for development? Art for the nation? Art as an identifier of race? That which gives forms to the soul?” The except taken from the speech given by Syed Ahmad Jamal, who was then the president of the Malaysia Art Society at its inaugural exhibition in 1981, is indicative of his preoccupation with forms, its ability to encapsulate and express the spiritual aspects of the soul. Later, Syed Ahmad Jamal left to further his studies in Art History at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, (1973) and Islamic Art Philosophy at Harvard University, Cambridge (1974). When he returned to Malaysia, he worked at the Asian Arts Museum, University Malaya, and was later promoted to the post of director of Culture Centre in 1979. He was then tasked with the responsibilities to research, analyze and organize an exposition of indigenous arts and crafts of the Malays. After months of study, investigations, traveling all over west Malaysia to locate and collect precious pieces of artifacts and items representative of the rich traditional-cultural heritage of the Malay world, the result was the ground breaking exhibition entitled “Rupa dan Jiwa” (Form and Soul). It was through this exhibition that Syed Ahmad Jamal elucidated his position on art and further consolidated it with eclectic sources from around the world to emphasize the precedence of essences over embellishments. The underlying, fundamental structure or pure form as well as lines and colors of these artifacts are the significant aspect which powerfully expresses in symbolic ways, the soul of the individual or that of the collective. That these forms which has been made comprehendible with decorative elements, products of the era from which the craftsmen lived and operated are still able to give rise to our aesthetic experience, transcending time, space, language and culture is testament of its timeless numinous qualities.

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In his foreword from the catalog for that exhibition which was later expanded in a new edition (1992) Syed Ahmad Jamal wrote that “The visual arts of the Malays are the incarnations of elements from the natural world into specific forms that constitutes the soul of its creator. The outcome of these, which exists from the realm of observation and contemplation, is the creation of the soul,  a manifestation of ideals, that reflect a harmonious situation between man and the natural world.” (translated by the writer from the original Malay). Perhaps the reciprocal state between man and nature inspired artists and craftsmen throughout the ages to make works with utilitarian functions as well as with a spiritual purpose whereby humans can simultaneously ameliorate their physical existence while also raising the “spiritual triangle”. 

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It is no coincidence that as a modern artist, Syed Ahmad Jamal would eschew the ostentatious and opt for non figurative configurations created by employing the direct, free, sinewy strokes, dashes and washes interspersing with geometric forms or shapes,  usually  positioned at the center of his canvasses. The circle, triangle, rectangle and other geometric shapes of various dimensions featured prominently in many of his paintings, as sculptures and even in design works (for print, products and stage) over the years coupled with the purposeful application of primary colors, selected for the intensity of its vibrations, brings to mind the works of early European modernist masters, especially those who were part of the teaching staff of the Bauhaus. Those familiar with these artists, theorists and teachers of that most revolutionary school founded by Walter Gropius (1883-1969) in 1919, that would later serve as the foundational model with its unique preliminary courses for all modern art academies (including the one that Syed Ahmad Jamal graduated from), will appreciate their profound influences in Syed Ahmad Jamal’s works. Traces of Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944),Paul Klee (1879-1940) Josef Albers (1888-1976) and Johannes Itten (1888-1967) are evident though Syed Ahmad Jamal’s early works shared similar characteristics with Expressionism and the style of Futurism. Another favourite artist who’s influence can be intermittently found in Syed Ahmad Jamal’s works is that great Spanish painter Joan Miro (1893-1983).

 

Furthermore, as a Muslim, it is not unexpected that his works would be imbued with a spiritual quality that became more prominent and explored intently in his later works. Works, whether in 2 or 3 dimensions incorporating Islamic calligraphy, religious symbols or motifs that serves to support, remind or complement claims about the existence of the Omnipotent is not an alien concept even in modern art practices. In “ Concerning the Spiritual In Art” originally published in 1912, Kandinsky wrote that “Painting is an art, and art is not vague production, transitory and isolated, but a power which must be directed to the improvement and refinement of the human soul-to in fact, the raising of the spiritual triangle”. He observed that “ the mutual influence of form and color now becomes clear. A yellow triangle, a blue circle, a green square, or a green triangle, a yellow circle, a blue square--all these are different and have different spiritual values” and “Form, even if it is quite abstract and geometrical, has an inward clang; it is a spiritual being with effects that coincide absolutely with the form”. When done right, this profound effect of art is akin to “The impact of the acute angle of a triangle on a circle is actually as overwhelming in effect as the finger of God touching the finger of Adam in Michelangelo”. 

 

That these forms can be discovered in nature through observations and contemplations “reflect a harmonious situation between man and the natural world” is perhaps the reason why many of Syed Ahmad Jamal’s works, using mostly the basic elements of art and design were inspired by or about nature. It is as though behind the seemingly chaotic disorder and purposelessness that we come to assume to be the attributes of nature, lies a phenomenal logic. In traditional Islamic art, flora motifs and geometric patterns (Arabesque for example) are often repeated or presented in harmonious equivalence.

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The symmetry that is produced by complex arrangements of parts from correct measurements accentuates the sense of inter-connectivity, and the equilibrium that is arrived at systematically emphasizes the simple fact that logic and order is inherent in Islam’s vision of the universe. Though Syed Ahmad Jamal employs a more robust and even personal approach in his art unlike the painters of patterns and motif makers, his intentions and motivations does not deviate from the more traditional minded Islamic artists. When he made the statement “My works have an Islamic soul in a contemporary form”, it is indicative of his intellectual lucidity in recognizing the limitations of parochial traditionalism. Rather than the whole sale of ejection of tradition(s), he advocates exploring those forms with modern artistic idioms to unlock or release the underlying timeless spiritual substance from its time bounded shell for the enjoyment and nourishment of a new generation of audiences.

 

Between the decades prior to being awarded Malaysia’s National Art Laureate in 1995 and after, Syed Ahmad Jamal had written on Malaysia’s arts and crafts, modern art history and painting, presented papers advocating a purposeful creation of a uniquely modern Malaysian design following the examples of Scandinavian countries and Japan, undertaken design assignments for print, product , interior, stage, murals and free standing sculptures for leading institutions and corporation, all the while holding important positions in the government as an educator, later as director(s) in institutions, ending his tour of duty with the National Art Gallery (1983-1991). Even the logo of this institution was designed by Syed Ahmad Jamal. He curated and organized numerous exhibitions promoting Malaysian artists locally and abroad as well as participated in international exhibitions and symposiums. Many from the older generation will remember him as the gallery’s most abled helmsman who, though a modernist, had no problems hosting an exhibition on art and craft, Malaysian cartoons and Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)’s R.O.C.I exhibition (1990) at the same premise. Unlike some of the more competitive and insular, Syed Ahmad Jamal made a point to acknowledge and promote even works by artists that he may not fancy or understood completely, but accepted that every artists (especially good ones) have a rightful place under the Malaysian sun. He was a brave and courageous man who stood up against petty bureaucrats many times, resisted meddlesome directives that borders on the asinine (which some believed led to his forced retirement) and who, even at an advanced age took to protest in the streets against injustices committed abroad and domestically.

 

From an overview of his body of works, one can discern a personality that is optimistic and full of vigor for life. As a life long abstract painter, his canvases records the inner impressions of his emotions and the workings of his intellect, as well as the positive energies of the peoples and places meaningful to him. He paints with a unique style that is an amalgamation of the European Modernists with the metaphysical nuances of his culture and spiritual beliefs. Underlying Syed Ahmad Jamal’s life long commitment to art  is the motivation to “impart statements alluding to the existence of truth” that will inspire the senses and uplift the spirits to the realization that there is a higher power than the ones professed by men.

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