Sri Yunnah, Kuncana continue painting, despite old age<\/p>\n
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post\/Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
Getting older does not mean you have to stop working. Artists Sri
\nYunnah, 64, and her husband, A.Y. Kuncana, 70, are proof of this.
\nDespite their age, they still paint and are very productive, each
\nproducing up to two paintings -- on mostly medium and large
\ncanvases -- a month.<\/p>\n
\"We could paint up to four paintings a month when we were
\nyoung,\" said Kuncana on the sidelines of a discussion held in
\nconjunction with a painting exhibition he and his wife are
\njointly hold at the Pitoe Gallery on Jl. Prawirotaman in
\nYogyakarta until Aug. 15.<\/p>\n
Titled Harmoni dan Sejoli (Harmony and a Couple), the two-week
\nexhibition features 24 paintings by Kuncana and Sri Yunnah, both
\ngraduates of the Indonesian College of Fine Arts in Yogyakarta.
\nNine of the paintings exhibited are by Kuncana and mostly depict
\nthe country's social and political life. The other 15 paintings
\nwere done by Sri Yunnah and capture scenes from daily life such
\nas traditional markets, moments of family life or landscapes.<\/p>\n
\"This is our first exhibition since our last joint painting
\nexhibition we held in Kuala Lumpur in 1987,\" said Sri Yunnah,
\nadding that they found it difficult to get together enough
\npaintings to exhibit because of their decreasing productivity and
\nthe increasing number of collectors who wanted to buy their
\nworks.<\/p>\n
\"Actually we want to hold a joint exhibition in Jakarta but we
\ndon't have a sufficient number of paintings to exhibit. We need
\nat least 40 to 50 paintings to exhibit there. We do not have that
\nmany,\" said Kuncana, whose paintings are among the collection of
\nthe Indonesian Museum of Fine Arts.<\/p>\n
Sri Yunnah's paintings are no less popular. She said many of
\nher paintings were in the collections of the Indonesian Museum of
\nFine Arts, the Adam Malik Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts at
\nTaman Mini Indonesia Indah, the State Palace in Jakarta and many
\nprivate collectors, both in Indonesia and Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Among the private collectors in Jakarta who have purchased her
\nworks, she said, were members of the extended family of former
\npresident Soeharto.<\/p>\n
\"People know me better in Jakarta than here in Yogyakarta,
\nwhere I've lived for nearly 40 years,\" said the Semarang-born Sri
\nYunnah, adding that this might have something to do with the fact
\nthat she debuted as an artist in Jakarta and held most of her
\nearly exhibition there.<\/p>\n
Before moving to Yogyakarta and settling down on Jl. Sawit,
\nSemaki Gede, where they still live, the then newlyweds Kuncana
\nand Sri Yunnah -- they were married in 1962 -- lived in Tanjung
\nBungkah, Denpasar, Bali. Kuncana, who was a civil servant, was
\nassigned to teach at a private high school there.<\/p>\n
The only stayed in Bali until 1965, when Kuncana gave up
\nteaching and the couple moved to Yogyakarta to dedicate
\nthemselves to their art. But life was not easy, especially
\nbecause Sri Yunnah was just realizing how difficult it was at the
\ntime to be a woman and to be recognized as an artist.<\/p>\n
She was deeply disappointed that none of her paintings she
\njointly exhibited in Surabaya in 1963 with Kuncana were sold,
\nwhile almost all of her husband's paintings were bought up by
\ncollectors.<\/p>\n
\"What hurt me the most was that it was not a matter of good or
\nbad paintings. It was just because I was a woman that people
\ndidn't want to notice my paintings. They didn't even want to have
\na look at them, much less to buy them,\" Sri Yunnah said.<\/p>\n
So upset was Sri Yunnah at the time that she considered giving
\nup art. However, Kuncana kept motivating and encouraging her,
\ngiving her the courage to create something different and
\nnoticeable in her paintings.<\/p>\n
After numerous experiments, using Bali's pictorial-decorative
\ntraditional painting style as inspiration, and adding modern
\ncoloring, improving the anatomy of the figures and most of all
\nadding texture, she came to what she calls a completely different
\nlook for her paintings.<\/p>\n
\"I found the texture so amazing. It made the paintings vivid
\non the surface of the canvas,\" Sri Yunnah said.<\/p>\n
Still, she said, the texture was just a tool to give her
\npaintings a different look, and was not the reason she painted.
\nPainting for her was still a matter of expression. It was the
\nbeautiful expression that mattered, not the texture. That is why
\nshe is annoyed when people refer to her paintings more as works
\nof craftsmanship than works of art.<\/p>\n
\"Both are completely different. A work of craftsmanship can be
\nduplicated repeatedly, made by mass production. A work of art
\ncannot. It is one of a kind. It is unique. My paintings
\ndefinitely cannot be repeatedly duplicated. They cannot be made
\nby mass production, especially the texture. No one does it like I
\ndo,\" Sri Yunnah said.<\/p>\n
The first solo exhibition she held for her textured paintings
\nwas in 1975 at the Banowati Gallery on Jl. Semarang in Jakarta,
\nsome 12 years after that frustrating exhibition in Surabaya. Some
\n35 of her paintings were exhibited in Jakarta, and 30 were sold.
\nHer second solo exhibition at the same gallery in 1979 was a
\nsimilar success, and Sri Yunnah never again considered giving up
\npainting.<\/p>\n
In 1980, at the invitation of Lingkar Mitra Budaya, Sri Yunnah
\nand Kuncana held a joint exhibition at the organization's
\nbuilding on Jl. Tanjung in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Only this time, the joint exhibition was a moment of pride.
\nShe felt comfortable seeing her paintings, the work of a woman,
\nplaced equally alongside those of her husband.<\/p>\n
\"The trauma that had been haunting me since the 1963
\nexhibition was completely gone,\" she said, adding that the fact
\nthat numerous collectors wanted her paintings and the countless
\ninvitations she received to hold joint exhibitions abroad further
\nconvinced her that she had chosen the correct path.<\/p>\n
Drawing on her own experiences, in 1985, together with three
\nother women artists -- Sri Robustina, Yuriah Tanzil and Dewaretno
\n-- Sri Yunnah established the Association of Indonesian Women
\nArtists in Jakarta. That same year in Yogyakarta, with the wives
\nof noted artists (the late) Bagong Kussudiarja, (the late)
\nWidayat and Djoko Pekik, she established the Association of Wives
\nof Yogyakarta Fine Artists.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/sri-yunnah-kuncana-continue-painting-despite-old-age-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}