Exhibition traces influences of Kay It<\/p>\n
By Amir Sidharta<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The strange and comic pot-bellied terra-cotta
\nfigures now appearing in Jakarta gardens, their elongated hands
\nplaying the gamelan, never fail to bring to my mind the wealth of
\ncreative genius that originates in Bali. These figures, which are
\nproducts of Bali, have become one of the most prominent Balinese
\nhandicrafts and can be seen everywhere, especially in the major
\ncenters of tourism on the island.<\/p>\n
We tend to take for granted that many kinds of Balinese
\nhandicrafts are works of collective creativity and therefore
\nremain anonymous and cannot be attributed to one person but
\nrather only to a village community. By contrast, in these
\nidiosyncratic figures, we get a strong sense of individual
\ncreativity.<\/p>\n
I once became enamored of the subtle sense of gaiety in the
\npaintings decorating the walls of Murni's Warung in Campuan, a
\nvillage just west of Ubud, Bali. One portrayed a triangular face
\nreminiscent of the cili -- a female figure representative of
\nfertility -- usually made out of rice dough and included in
\nBalinese offerings. Another depicted a village scene with rice
\nbarns flanked with ornamental bamboo poles. These drawings seemed
\nto me even more idiosyncratic and individual than the terra-cotta
\nfigures mentioned previously.<\/p>\n
Later, I learned that the stylized figures could indeed be
\nattributed to one person, a Balinese of Chinese descent by the
\nname of Kay It. But what was even more interesting was that the
\npaintings I so admired in Ubud turned out to be the creations of
\nthe same individual.<\/p>\n
Kay It was born in 1938 in Tabanan, a village in southwestern
\nBali. As the eldest son of a family of mixed Balinese and Chinese
\ndescent, Kay It was expected to continue his parent's copra
\nbusiness. However, the young man seemed to be more interested in
\nart. From primary school onwards his favorite pastime was
\ndrawing, and he is even known to have bought his pencils and
\npaper on credit when he ran out of pocket money.<\/p>\n
After completing his secondary education in the 1950s, the
\ndetermined student of art spent some time with a relative who was
\nattending an art school in Surakarta, Central Java. In 1959,
\nhaving run out of money, Kay it to returned home.<\/p>\n
Back in Bali, he became acquainted with other painters,
\nincluding Alimin and Roesli Hakim, at the house of Javanese
\npainter Bambang Soegeng in Tanjung Bungkak, south of Denpasar.
\nBambang's house had become a meeting place for non-Balinese
\nIndonesian painters who lived in Bali at the time. They displayed
\ntheir works at a studio gallery adjacent to the house.<\/p>\n
Kay It's first exhibition was held at Surabaya's Pik Gan Art
\nGallery in July 1964. No paintings were sold. Young visitors to
\nthe show offered the artist this comment: \"Oom (uncle), your
\npaintings are terrible.\" But rather than discouraging Kay It, the
\nexperience served as a challenge to him.<\/p>\n
Modern art<\/p>\n
At the end of the same year, he exhibited at the Prasta
\nPandawa gallery in Jakarta, on the invitation of Hendra
\nHadiprana, who had met Kay It and seen his works. This show was
\nreviewed favorably and half of the paintings were sold. Among the
\npurchasers was Affandi, a pioneer of modern Indonesian art. Kay
\nIt held successful exhibitions in Jakarta in 1966, 1967 and 1969.<\/p>\n
During this early period, Kay It's works were clearly
\ninfluenced by his interest in modern art. His Flowers in A Vase
\n(1964), for example, shows inspiration from van Gogh, in subject
\nmatter, and from Matisse, in style. One of Modigliani's reclining
\nnude paintings appears in the background of Kay It's Faded
\nFlowers (1965). The techniques of George Rouault have evidently
\nbeen applied in his Grandmother (1965). According to Australian
\nanthropologist David Stuart-Fox, who wrote a book on Kay It, the
\nartist's knowledge of Western art was limited to second-hand
\ninformation obtained mainly from books.<\/p>\n
It seems Kay It's encounter with Affandi also made an
\nimpression on him. The expressive strokes of Affandi, as well as
\nthe maestro's palette, which consists primarily of brownish
\nyellows, reds and greens, inspired the young artist when he
\npainted Njoman Singen (1966).<\/p>\n
Although heavily influenced by other artists, Kay It started
\nto assert his own presence in his art. While certain elements in
\nVillage Swimming Hole (1966) seem to have been influenced by
\nMatisse's Dance, the painting reflects what one reviewer in that
\nyear called the painter's \"somber view of Balinese life.\"<\/p>\n
Despite his interest in western art, the artist was already
\nstarting to develop his own esthetics and style. This is evident
\nin Festival Decoration (1965), Temple Ritual (1966) and Night
\nCreatures (1966).<\/p>\n
In about 1967, Kay It began to work with terracotta
\ncraftspeople from Pejaten, a village southeast of Tabanan,
\nleading to the creation of the figures mentioned at the beginning
\nof the article. Kay It met Kerry Hill -- the architect of the
\nBali Hyatt -- at the home of Australian artist Donald Friend in
\nBatujimbar, Sanur, in the early 1970s. The meeting resulted in a
\ncommission for decorative terracotta tiles for the entrance to
\nthe Sanur Beach Hotel.<\/p>\n
The painter's interest in batik, which dates back to about
\n1971, led him to go to Yogyakarta to study the traditional dyeing
\ntechnique, which was gaining increasing popularity as a medium
\nfor painting among the local artists there. Kay It employed both
\nbrush and the traditional canting (small bamboo scoop for batik)
\nin his works.<\/p>\n
It seems clear that Kay It's mature style was influenced by
\nbatik techniques which he learned in Java and Donald Friend's
\nmethod of layering. From batik, he learned the use of resistant
\nmaterials.<\/p>\n
On the basis of the resistance principle, Kay It developed a
\nmethod for his paper-based paintings which was quite different
\nfrom batik. He did, however, continue to use wax as a resistant
\nmaterial. Not patient enough to work with slow-drying oils, he
\nused acrylics which he applied with rollers of various sizes on
\npaper and board. The layers of paint gave the works rich colors
\nand textures. Then the artist delineated the forms and images in
\nhis drawings with pencils and completed them with final touches
\nof paint.<\/p>\n
Artist<\/p>\n
An exhibition of Kay It's works which opened at the Hawksburn
\nArt Workshop in Melbourne, Australia, in October 1973 confirmed
\nhis position as an accomplished artist. In cooperation with the
\nHawksburn Art Workshop, the artist's friends, Henry Talbot and
\nEsta Handfield, who had met him in Bali, had arranged for him to
\nstudy ceramics and present lectures in Australia. Less than six
\nmonths later, Kay It had held three exhibitions there, the last
\none marking the opening of the Solander Gallery in Canberra.<\/p>\n
Then, an encounter with another Western artist influential in
\nthe development of art in Bali further reaffirmed his
\naccomplishment as an artist. During his return to visit Bali in
\n1975 and 1976, Rudolf Bonnet -- who had lived in Bali between
\n1931 and 1958 with the exception of a brief period during World
\nWar II -- noticed Kay It's talent and arranged for him to exhibit
\nin the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
In the midst of his preparations for what would have been
\nperhaps the most important exhibition of his career, Kay It
\nsuffered a fatal heart attack, dying in April 1977.<\/p>\n
Knowledge of Kay It's existence and genius has been limited
\nbecause of his early death. The Bali expatriates who knew him
\nwere those who were in Bali in the 1970s. Others are familiar
\nwith his work but were not fortunate enough to become acquainted
\nwith the artist himself.<\/p>\n
A retrospective exhibition of Kay It's work is being held at
\nthe Santi Gallery on Jl. Benda in Kemang, South Jakarta. Running
\nuntil Nov. 7, it is a great opportunity to learn about his work.<\/p>\n
Another useful source is David Stuart-Fox's Kay It: Whimsical
\nWorld of a Modern Balinese Artist (Koes Artbooks, 1995), which is
\nthe primary source of the biographical sketch above. Stuart-Fox
\nwas a friend of Kay It and the book gives readers who never met
\nthe painter an opportunity to find out what he was like.<\/p>",
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