Exploring A New Market for Painting in Malaysia: A Need Assessment Analysis

Abstract

Modern paintings started in Malaysia as early as1930s. From its introduction until the present, the development of the painting industry seemed to be very encouraging. This development can be seen through the emergence of many private galleries and the increase in painting sales every year. However, despite this optimistic scenario, few issues need to be looked into. For instance, paintings are still considered challenging to sell in terms of marketing, especially for young artists. Furthermore, the primary art market in Malaysia is concentrated on private collectors whose number is minimal. This creates difficulties among the collectors to access the majority of the artist to buy paintings. This study seeks to explore the potential of new markets for painting in Malaysia. Through the qualitative method, few selected art experts and artists were interviewed. The findings from this study could be used as guidelines in art marketing and are expected to increase the sale of paintings, especially to new artists in Malaysia.