Published Paper Details:

Contemporary Islamic art in Malaysia has long been documented and it was usually developed within the Malay culture that was based on an Islamic understanding of concepts and teachings. The years between 1980 and 1990 shows a significant impact towards contemporary Islamic Art in Malaysia due to the reaction from the National Cultural Congress that was held in 1971. Islam became the main cultural root and that period can be considered a revival period of Islamic art in the country and became one of the main art forms developed by Muslim artists those days. However, due to some influence from the western country has impacted the ideology of Malaysian artists, especially towards finding their own cultural identity in Malaysia. The emergence of new expressions based on this issue lead the artist to produce Islamic artworks that illustrate some crisis of identity. Therefore, this paper was conducted to discuss deeper the view of contemporary Islamic art in Malaysia particularly focusing on the issues ad challenges faced by Muslim artists. Four samples of Malaysian artworks have been selected to discuss its content and significant meaning. It is hoped that this conceptual paper will make some small contribution towards guiding Malaysian artists, researchers, and art historians about the issues, crises and challenges faced by Malaysian artists in the Malay world.