KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 13 ― The National Art Gallery could reinstate the four artworks of visual artist Ahmad Fuad Osman, Malaysiakini reported late last night, following allegations of censorship over its decision to remove them recently.
The Visual Arts Development Board (NVADB) is expected to hold a meeting today to discuss the matter, the news portal reported, quoting the Deputy Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik.
“They will have another meeting to review the reinstatement of Ahmad Fuad Osman’s artwork tomorrow,” Muhammad Bakhtiar was quoted as saying, referring to the board.
This comes after a purported letter from the deputy minister to the NVADB chairman Rashidi Hasbullah was leaked and shared on the internet.
According to Malaysiakini, the letter contained Muhammad Bakhtiar’s instruction for the NVADB to consider reinstalling the four pieces of artwork and issue a letter of apology to Ahmad Fuad immediately.
It also stated that the exhibition has been held for the past three months without any complaint and incident and that the reasons to remove the four artworks were unclear and inconsistent, among others.
The four pieces include ‘Untitled 2012’, ‘Dreaming of Being Somebody Afraid of Being Nobody’, ‘Imitating the Mountain 2004’ and ‘Mak Bapak Borek, Anak Cucu Cicit Pun Rintik’.
They were part of Ahmad Fuad’s solo exhibition titled’ At The End of The Day Art is not Important (1990-2019)’.
National Arts Gallery director-general Amerruddin Ahmad explained that the gallery had found some of Fuad’s work needed additional “guidance, explanation and a high level of art-knowledge” to avoid being “misunderstood”.
Malaysiakini reported that Amerruddin had confirmed that the meeting will take place today, but declined to comment further.
“I can’t comment further as the matter is still under decision and we have yet to come to a conclusion,” he was quoted as saying.
