JP\/19\/NUDES<\/p>\n
Female Nudes exhibition: An act of provocation<\/p>\n
Carla Bianpoen
\nContributor\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
On September 22, CP Artspace Jakarta launched an exhibition of
\nMochtar Apin's nudes, to honor the memory of a great artist.<\/p>\n
Provocative Bodies, as curator Jim Supangkat has titled the
\nexhibition (after his book that is to be published shortly) shows
\n24 nudes painted by the late Mochtar Apin, and 10 sculptures of
\nnudes by 40-year-old Teguh Priyono.<\/p>\n
Realizing the exhibition was bound to provoke controversy,
\nJim, in his introduction, propounds the theory that Mochtar
\nwanted to present naked females as subjects instead of objects,
\nor, looked at the \"woman behind the physical nude\", putting
\nfemale sexuality to the fore.<\/p>\n
However, not all agree. Feminist and professor of philosophy
\nToeti Heraty said it was not women's sexuality but men's that was
\nat the crux of the work, with Mochtar's women simply the objects
\nof his male gaze.<\/p>\n
A similar view is expressed in John Berger's well-known book
\nWays of Seeing about artwork that represents the male gaze. \"Men
\nact and women appear\", he states.<\/p>\n
Taking the concept further, Daniel Chandler in his Notes on
\nthe Gaze, reminds the reader Berger advanced the idea that the
\nrealistic, \"highly tactile\" depiction of things in oil paintings
\nand later in color photography, (in particular where they were
\nportrayed as \"within touching distance)\", represented a desire to
\npossess the things, or the lifestyle, depicted.<\/p>\n
This concept also applied to women depicted in this way.<\/p>\n
The female nude, as such, is an ancient object of artistic
\ninterest, and one of the first things learned about in the early
\nstages of an art history course.<\/p>\n
The full-figured Venus of Willendorf, and the bare-breasted,
\nnursing Madonna in religious paintings are examples that have
\ncontinued to serve art courses.<\/p>\n
But the emergence in the 1960s of a powerful feminist movement
\nand the concomitant development of a feminist critique of art
\nhistory has challenged patriarchal assumptions and changed
\ncritics' field of vision.<\/p>\n
Linda Nochlin alerted a generation of readers and students to
\nthe \"genderedness\" of modern vision, and to the figuration of
\nliberation in solely masculine terms.<\/p>\n
This exhibition, which combines Mochtar's female nudes made in
\nthe last few years of his life, with nude sculptures in the same
\nmold by a young Indonesian sculptor, is once again a token of
\nIndonesia's patriarchal society, where pleasure in looking has
\nbeen differentiated between the active (male) and passive
\n(female).<\/p>\n
Although it is not clear why Apin, who was a painter in a
\nvariety of styles, switched mostly to nudes in his old age, and
\neven the curator's notes in the catalog are unable to provide a
\nconvincing explanation, there is no denying that the nudes
\nrepresent women who are being looked at, an act of the active
\nmale gaze that projects its fantasy onto the female figure.<\/p>\n
Nudes appeared much earlier in his career as a painter, but
\nthen they were somehow blurred by the exquisite colors that
\ndominated his canvases, as revealed in works such as Wanita Tidur
\n(Woman Asleep, 1980), Wanita dan Ikan (Woman and Fish, 1970),
\nWanita Bersarung (Woman Wearing a Sarong, 1992\/1993) and
\nPemandangan Bukit Bukit (View of Hills, 1991), almost all others
\nplaced the nude as the highlight of the canvas appearing in full
\nand various poses, expressionless as if submitting to the will of
\nthe male viewer.<\/p>\n
Only Bahagia Ibu (Mother's Happiness) and Ibu dan Anak (Mother
\nand Child) reflect a nude where the joy of motherhood takes over
\nfrom the fact of nudity.<\/p>\n
Clearly, not all of Apin's nudes in the exhibition are
\nmasterpieces. How much more of an honor to the master it would
\nhave been had the curator at least blended the female nudes with
\nother examples of Apin's work that have gained him a place among
\nthe country's pioneers of modern art.<\/p>\n
Mochtar Apin was involved in the arts at a very early age.
\nEven before he entered ITB as a student he was considered an
\naccomplished painter.<\/p>\n
Born in West Sumatra in 1923, he was barely 16 -- a high-
\nschool student -- when he learned drawing from Dutch art teacher
\nJV Lookeren and painting from oil painter HV Velthuyzen; during
\nthe Japanese occupation he was in close contact with Jakarta
\nartists.<\/p>\n
He obtained various scholarships that allowed him to study at
\nthe Amsterdam Kunstnijverheid school, the Paris Ecole Nationale
\nSuperieure des Beaux Arts and the Deutsche Akademie der Kunste in
\nBerlin.<\/p>\n
Over a period of eight years he explored contemporary European
\nart, became skilled in various techniques, and also studied
\nlithography, offset and graphic art techniques, in which he
\nexcelled.<\/p>\n
For sculptor Teguh, it came as quite a surprise when the
\nexhibition curator contacted him and requested he exhibit
\ntogether with a senior artist of another generation.<\/p>\n
A graduate from the Yogya Institute of Arts (ISI), Teguh says
\nhe has always sculpted what he feels when viewing the female
\nnude.<\/p>\n
With more than 10 years' experience, his bronze female nude
\nsculptures vary between innovations that are marked by leaving
\ncertain body parts unfinished or cut off, and a sexual fervor
\nthat reveals a man in the fullness of his male power.<\/p>\n
Titles like Room No. 1, 2 etc., suggest a place where
\nprostitutes ply their trade.<\/p>\n
While some will indulge in this world of female nudes, others
\nmay find it suffocating.
\n
\nProvocative bodies
\nAn exhibition of Nudes by Mochtar Apin and sculptures by Teguh S.
\nPriyono
\nSept. 22 through Oct. 12, 2004
\nCP Artspace
\nJl. Suryopranoto 67A, Central Jakarta
\ntel. 3448126 ext. 604<\/p>",
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