The Balai Seni Lukis Negara, or National Art Gallery (NAG) sits adjacent to the National Blood Centre on Jalan Temerloh. Unlikely neighbours, if you ever saw a pair, but somehow it is rather poignant city planning for it doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to say they both play essentially similar roles. Put simply, the blood bank’s official role (among others) is to store blood, whilst the NAG functions as keeper of our national art treasures. And like the blood centre, the NAG could also do with a few more donations.

I may be foregoing some obvious medical differences between these two institutions, but the link isn’t that far fetched. Isn’t art the lifeblood of a nation? The NAG may function as the heart of visual art matters, yet it doesn’t get everyone’s pulse racing. Visitor numbers are telling. The times I have visited, traffic is low and, on one occasion, I even overheard a tourist asking a gallery attendant if it is always this quiet: ‘In Australia, there are more people visiting galleries.’ I took his word for it — I have never been Down Under.

Surprised? I’m not, though for starters, this isn’t a fair comparison. Foreign galleries work with bigger budgets, whilst our poor NAG battles for funding with monumental government projects — magic super corridors leading nowhere, for example. The funding allocated to the NAG is (as we can easily predict) lamentable. It’s a similar predicament for other areas of the arts. Sadly, those elusive technological corridors make for more newsworthy headlines.

Funding isn’t the only reason that accounts for the NAG’s poor attraction: it has been on the receiving end of much bad press. The gallery’s most celebrated period was when the Rubik’s cube was all the rage. Since, the NAG has been struggling with severe mid-life crisis, desperately trying to step out of the shadow of its glory days. However, this year could mark a renaissance of sorts. A new director leads the pack, and, in a bid to confound critics, the NAG is currently exhibiting Susurmasa, or Timeline.

The timeliness of this exhibition has probably been mentioned elsewhere, but it bears repeating: this year, the NAG turns 50 and there’s no better way for an art gallery to usher in an anniversary than by dressing its walls. Susurmasa also presents the perfect excuse for the NAG to pull out previously unseen artworks from their permanent collection, of which — it would surprise some to know — there are more than 3,700 pieces. The colossal exhibition takes up the entire building and artworks have been lumped under five different themes: Prehistoric and Indigenous, Maritime Empire and The Age of Commerce, The Illustrated News, Malayan Beauty, Iconic Works, and Contemporary.

For a temporary exhibition, the amount of pieces on display could be record-breaking. I don’t own a counting-device, so if asked to a guess, I’d say there are about two thousand artworks exhibited. I’m sure my guess is off the mark, but it certainly felt that way. I predict you too will be overwhelmed. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though – how often do we get to see these artworks all at once?

The NAG has not laid out plans for its permanent display, but more often than not, artworks are confined to the gallery’s hallowed underground storage, owing to spatial constraints. For Susurmasa, curators have trawled the collection and dusted off canvases and sculptures to look their best for the gallery’s big day. Their enthusiasm is justified — the history of Malaysian art is a fascinating subject and there are many pieces in the national collection of which to be proud of. The oldest and most valuable painting in the collection is O. Don Peris’ ‘Portrait of My Wife in Wedding Dress’ from 1933. Do take the Guggenheim-like spiral staircase up to the Malayan Beauty gallery to pay Mr Peris’ wife a visit — I’m sure she’ll appreciate the company. Or will she?

Mrs Peris already has plenty of female company. Malayan Beauty only features artworks with female subjects. Perhaps there weren’t any ravishing men in the NAG’s permanent collection. Coupled with a quizzical (read: sexist) epithet describing this section, it is nothing short of Hugh Hefneresque and reeks of beauty pageantry. I’m not convinced this was a smart move by the NAG; Katherine Sim’s ‘Salmah’ or Mohd Hoessein Enas’ ‘Minah’ isn’t simply there to be gawked at. Truly, it is more salacious than refined gentleman.

Other sections are also thematic, but they aren’t quite as scandalous. In fact, they redeem much of the gallery’s misgivings with the bevy of beauties on the first-floor. There are some great loans from other institutions, namely from Sarawak, which can be found at Prehistoric and Indigenous. An entire room is devoted to wood-carved sculptures and ceremonial masks. Fans of folkloric traditions will be interested to know these masks reputedly contain spirits. Not to belittle their cultural functions, but some would make pretty good additions to a Halloween costume.

The labyrinthine Maritime Empire and The Age of Commerce has great pieces, including installation work, alongside more traditional sculptures and paintings. There’s also a massive painting by American pop artist, Robert Rauschenberg — a bequest from the artist during his tenure in Malaysia in the eighties. Upstairs at Iconic Works the mood is a little bit more sombre, but artworks have been grouped chronologically, so it’s possible to trace the genealogy of ‘who’s who’ in Malaysian art. And, there are some wonderful finds at Contemporary, where photographic works by Nirmala Dutt Shanmugalingam and Redza Piyadasa’s conceptual works stand out. There’s also an entire wall devoted to Noor Azizan Rahman Paiman’s ‘The Code Series’ (2005), which depicts carnivalesque illustrations of good and evil characters (caricatures of local politicians) juxtaposed with typewritten quotations.

Susurmasa marks the NAG’s milestone with plenty of artworks to get the heart pumping. Go on over to wish them a happy birthday and help them blow out the candles.