Nothing can stop painter I Nyoman Gunarsa<\/p>\n
I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali<\/p>\n
Everything has been anything but easy over the last two years
\nfor noted Balinese painter I Nyoman Gunarsa.<\/p>\n
A recent court case forced him to travel into the dangerous
\nand uncharted territory of the legalities and complexities of
\ncopyright.<\/p>\n
After filing a police report on several people, including a
\npolitically influential Denpasar-based gallery owner, for
\nallegedly producing and distributing fake Gunarsa paintings, the
\n57-year-old painter faced a legal backlash: a libel lawsuit filed
\nby the gallery owner.<\/p>\n
Yet, the most difficult moment for this dynamic founder of the
\npowerful Yogyakarta-based artists group Sanggar Dewata Indonesia
\nwas when a paralyzing stroke hit him. Not once, but twice. The
\nfirst attack took place last year and confined him to a hospital
\nbed for days. His right hand, the one that for decades had been
\nregularly stroking the canvas and giving life to many beautiful
\npaintings, was weakened by the attack and prevented him from
\nworking for almost one year.<\/p>\n
A year later, when things seemed to be getting better and to
\nsome extent Gunarsa had regained control over his right hand, the
\nsecond attack struck. At that point, many people in Bali's art
\ncommunity believed they might lose him forever.<\/p>\n
But Gunarsa is not the kind of man to surrender easily or
\nquietly to life's challenges. He fought back. And did it so well
\nthat many people find it difficult to forget his battle of will
\nagainst his ailment.<\/p>\n
\"In his almost incomprehensible voice he kept trying to
\ncommunicate his ideas to people. And he stubbornly and
\ncontinuously asked for more paper on which he forced that right
\nhand to sketch something, anything, in an apparent attempt to
\nmaintain his skill,\" the owner of Darga Gallery, Jais Hadiana
\nDargawijaya, recalled when she visited Gunarsa in his hospital
\nbed.<\/p>\n
To Gunarsa, the attacks proved to be a defining moment in his
\nlife. If anything, the stroke has made him a stronger man, and
\nmost probably a new painter.<\/p>\n
\"I did not end up dead. Obviously, God has another plan for my
\nlife. I went through that painful time and came out as a man with
\na new understanding on the meaning of life, and the relation
\nbetween the physical body and the transcendental soul of a human
\nbeing,\" Gunarsa said.<\/p>\n
Eventually, that understanding became a new source of
\ninspiration for Gunarsa, and later led him into a new period in
\nhis never-ending quest for artistic exploration.<\/p>\n
Gunarsa described that based on the thematic content of the
\npaintings, most of his works from 1960 to 1970 could be
\ncategorized as the Academic Period, 1970 to 1980 as the Offerings
\nPeriod, 1980 to 1990 as the Aringgit (Wayang or puppet) Period,
\nand 1990 to 2000 as the Dance Period.<\/p>\n
\"I called the new period that was born out of my newly
\nacquired understanding of life the Moksa Period, a period in
\nwhich I strive to liberate myself from any artistic limits, and
\nto create freely,\" he said.<\/p>\n
In Balinese-Hindu belief, Moksa is the highest state of
\nenlightenment, where the individual soul (Atma) merges with the
\nall-loving, all-forgiving universal soul of Paramatma (the
\ncreator). It is said that those who attain Moksa are be able to
\ntake their physical bodies with them when they leave this world.
\nIt is also said that a person can attain Moksa not only after
\ndeath but also during his or her day-to-day life here on earth.
\nThis attainment is called Jiwa Mukti.<\/p>\n
\"I comprehend Moksa not as an end but an ever-flowing process
\nthrough which I artistically exploit any elements, colors and
\nskills I have known before to freely create beautiful
\nrepresentations of this world on canvas,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Some 40 aquarelle paintings of this Moksa Period will be
\nexhibited at the Piazza Gallery in San Francisco's Sausalito area
\nfrom Oct. 25 to Oct. 31. It will be Gunarsa's fifth solo
\nexhibition in the United States.<\/p>\n
The second exhibition was scheduled to take place at New
\nYork's Agama Gallery from Nov. 7 to Nov. 14, but the recent
\ntragic event in New York has forced both Gunarsa and the gallery
\nto postpone the exhibition until March 2002.<\/p>\n
The works retain many of Gunarsa's earlier symbols and
\nrepresentations, such as elegant Balinese female dancers and a
\ndynamic and brightly colored Barong for instance. But there is
\nless detail and the colors are lighter and brighter. Most of the
\nworks also do not possess the symmetrical-composition that was
\nrepeatedly exploited by Gunarsa in his Aringgit and Dance Period.
\nThe strokes, dots and brush strokes seem to have been executed in
\na light-hearted, spontaneous and free manner.<\/p>\n
\"The Moksa Period is the result of an evolution of all my
\nprevious works; elements, symbols, colors, experiences merged
\ninto a unified source of new creativity. The suffering I endured
\nwas the trigger, the source of creativity that gave birth to
\nthese works,\" Gunarsa told.<\/p>\n
In short, the works are both new and old at the same time, and
\nin a sense are a definite representation of the 2001 Gunarsa, the
\nartist who found that near-death, hardship and misery blessed his
\nlife with the sweet taste of spiritual liberation.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/nothing-can-stop-painter-i-nyoman-gunarsa-1447893297",
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