Analysing iconography in contemporary socio-political paintings of Malaysian artists' figurative arts

The figure images in painting are the core features illustrated by artist to convey specific ideas. The illustrated figure in paintings suggest and reflect artist response in certain issues political and social issues. Thus, this study aims to examine in-depth the in contemporary figurative socio-political paintings by Malaysian artists. The objectives of this research are to explain the process of analyzing iconographic elements related in contemporary figurative paintings and to describe iconographic elements related to socio-political issues in contemporary figurative artworks of Malaysian artist as iconography in addressing socio-political themes in the local visual art landscape. This study involves a qualitative analysis of figurative art by five Malaysian contemporary painters using descriptive analysis with five painting for each phase. The data collection includes images and catalogs of works produced on canvas and paper in various sizes. Subsequently, an in-depth iconographic analysis is conducted by year phase, using the collected images of figurative works as the main subjects to convey socio-political issues in Malaysian artists' contemporary figurative paintings. Based on the theme "iconography in contemporary socio-political figurative art by Malaysian artists," selected figurative paintings will be documented and described. This effort is part of enhancing the documentation process of figurative works by Malaysian painters and emphasizing its significance to society and the development of the Malaysian visual arts scene.