Stolen paintings reflect Kerton's career<\/p>\n
By Amir Sidharta<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The 19 Sudjana Kerton paintings that were
\nrecently stolen in Bandung reflected many stages in the artists's
\ncareer, primarily from 1950 to 1988, with two works left undated.<\/p>\n
Kerton was born in Bandung in 1922. Between 1944 and 1949 he
\nworked as an artist for the Patriot newspaper in Yogyakarta. He
\nalso participated in the Indonesian independence movements as an
\nartist, making documentary sketches of several events related to
\nthe country's struggle for independence. During this period he
\nactively participated in several art exhibitions in Yogyakarta.
\nHe developed a style which was still very much rooted in realism.
\nIn a recent exhibition the paintings from this period were mostly
\nportraits dating from 1949.<\/p>\n
In 1950 he became one of the first Indonesian artists to
\nreceive a scholarship from the Foundation for Cultural Exchange
\nto study in Amsterdam and Paris.<\/p>\n
Five of the stolen paintings, namely Daumier's Studio, Sheep
\nMeadow, Man from Suriname, Village in the Valley, Pontoise and
\nApple Tree date from 1950. During this period, Kerton's work was
\nstill very much akin to his painting style before he left
\nIndonesia. Man from Suriname, for example, is treated in very
\nmuch the same manner as his portraits of 1949, although perhaps
\nslightly less refined. Even the treatment of interiors in his
\npainting of Daumier's Studio shows a similarity in spirit to the
\ninteriors of his 1949 portraits of Nike and Woman with Cat.<\/p>\n
A year later he received a scholarship to study at the Art
\nStudents League in New York. He continued to live in New York for
\nthe next 25 years.<\/p>\n
There he used abstractions influenced by cubism. He reduced
\nfigures into facets and planes of color. Nonetheless, as
\nCockfight (1958) and Rainstorm (1958) show, Kerton often painted
\nIndonesian subjects even though he did not produce them in
\nIndonesia. The paintings became a means to express his nostalgia
\nfor his motherland.<\/p>\n
Later, his paintings looked more and more like facets of
\ncolor. The figure in Sleeping Nude (1959) almost disappears among
\nthe shapes and colors on the canvas.<\/p>\n
In 1962, renowned Indonesian painter Affandi, who was an old
\nfriend of Kerton's, visited him in New York. Upon seeing a
\nportrait of Affandi eating a watermelon in the collection of the
\nMuseum Universitas Pelita Harapan, Jakarta, Mrs. Louise Kerton,
\nthe widow of Sudjana Kerton, said that she remembered the summer
\nday when the two artists bought lobsters and watermelon. They had
\na picnic and painted together. \"Affandi painted his own image,
\nand Sudjana painted Affandi,\" she recalled. Kerton's painting of
\nAffandi, also produced that very summer day, is Affandi Eating
\nWatermelon. It was also stolen on the night of Feb. 2.<\/p>\n
Later that year, Kerton followed Affandi, who had gone to
\nMexico. There they painted together. Kerton stayed on in Mexico
\nfor about a year to study mural-painting. The Fallen Matador
\n(1963), another missing painting, is from this brief stay in
\nMexico. Here his cubistic approach is given a bright Mexican
\npalette.<\/p>\n
Kerton returned to Bandung in 1976 and built his studio at
\nBukit Pakar, Dago Atas, which he called Sanggar Luhur
\n(Illustrious Studio). Upon his return to Bandung, he expressed
\ngreat interest and concern about village life. Buffalo and Bird
\n(1980), symbolizes the artist's great respect for a mutually
\nbeneficial symbiosis within the ecology. The cubistic elements of
\nhis American period are no longer treated as planes of color but
\nrather facets of natural elements, particularly earth and water.<\/p>\n
In Bandung, Kerton viewed life with great cynicism, thereby
\nmanaging to highlight certain interesting aspects of life which
\nare often overlooked and taken for granted by the general public.
\nHere he adopted yet another style of painting. Although it
\nclearly derives from the American period, his paintings after
\n1978 seem to have a strong element of caricature.<\/p>\n
He expresses his impressions of riding an oplet (small bus)
\nand all of its intricacies in Anatomy of an Oplet (1979), another
\nwork which was stolen. He stresses the chaotic atmosphere in the
\noplet, with one passenger's feet being tangled with another
\npassenger's feet. Meanwhile, the driver has to pay attention to
\neverything that is happening around the car, including the man
\nwho is filling up the gas tank of the vehicle, the view of the
\ntraffic as seen through the windshield and his own appearance as
\nreflected through the rear view mirror.<\/p>\n
In Street Circus (1988), also a missing work, Kerton portrays
\nchildren being amused by a monkey, who takes the role of a woman
\nlooking at her own image in the mirror, while a dog stands on its
\ntwo hind feet wearing a dress and carrying a purse attached to
\nher umbrella. The animals are being directed by a man, while his
\nassistant and another monkey watches. Certainly this painting is
\nnot a mere rendition of the street scene, but rather a commentary
\nabout the social condition of life in Indonesia in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
Back in Indonesia, his paintings no longer reflected his
\nlonging for a distant land, but perhaps they still do show his
\nconcern about preserving a disappearing village life. Lion Dance
\n(1984) shows the painter's attention and love for the folk arts
\nin his home country.<\/p>\n
After a long illness, Kerton passed away in 1994.<\/p>\n
Critics<\/p>\n
Kerton is still not very well known and is only beginning to
\nbe properly placed in the history of Indonesian Art. Upon hearing
\nthe news about the theft, Sudarmaji, a critic, mentioned in a
\nKompas morning daily that the 1996 exhibition of Kerton's work
\nwas the first show of the painter's work in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Actually, Kerton had had four solo exhibitions in Jakarta
\nbefore his death in 1994, the first at the Taman Ismail Marzuki
\n(TIM) in 1980, then at Balai Budaya in 1984, again at TIM in 1985
\nand finally at the Erasmus Huis in 1988. In fact, the critic was
\ncurator of Kerton's 1985 exhibition.<\/p>\n
It is true that the 1996 retrospective was the first
\nexhibition of Kerton's work after the Indonesian art boom, which
\nstarted in 1989. The exposure that the 1996 show received opened
\nmany eyes to the value of Kerton's paintings. The theft of his
\nworks on Feb. 2 was the largest robbery of works of a single
\nartist in one incident.<\/p>\n
Another critic Jim Supangkat mentioned in Suara Pembaruan
\nafternoon daily that the theft was premature. He said that
\ncritics have only just reached a discussion about Kerton's
\nexistence and position on the map of Indonesian art. Through this
\nstatement, he admits that critics are lagging behind art
\ncriminals in their knowledge and assessment of works of art,
\nespecially with regard to their commercial value. Even before the
\n1996 retrospective, a number of Kerton fakes appeared on the
\nmarket, indicating that there was a great demand for the artist's
\nwork.<\/p>\n
Although the theft is clearly the work of professionals, it
\nseems to be linked to clandestine art dealers, who are developing
\na sound knowledge about paintings in this booming market. The
\nIndonesian art market is tight-knit and it is likely that the
\npaintings were meant to be shipped somewhere where the art market
\nis not as nationalistic, such as Singapore, Malaysia or Hong
\nKong.<\/p>",
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