Van der Sterren paints landscape from memory<\/p>\n
By Benito Lopulalan<\/p>\n
DENPASAR (JP): Mooi Indie, or "Beautiful Indonesia", a school
\nof painting that explores the beauty of Indonesia, used to be
\naccused of not caring about the problems of the country's poor
\npeople. The Association of Indonesian Painters (Persagi)
\nprotested against the school on that ground in 1938. The
\nassociation's members, such as Soedjojono, Emiria Soenassa,
\nAffandi, Otto Djaja and Agoes Djaja blew the trumpet of
\nexpressionism, impressionism and surrealism as new and more
\ndynamic ways of portraying life through art.<\/p>\n
John van der Sterren may be an artist on the boundary between
\nMooi-Indie and the followers of Persagi. His paintings draw on
\nexpressionism, a school through which some members of Persagi
\nonce expressed their freedom to reject Mooi-Indie's line.
\nHowever, as far as theme is the concerned, his paintings, which
\nrefer to Bali and Priangan (West Java), are not greatly different
\nfrom those of the Dutch-educated painters: they represent culture
\nembedded in places, not in people.<\/p>\n
The course of his own life may explain his preferences, both
\nin style and subject matter. A New Zealander, the artist was born
\nin Sukabumi, West Java, in 1938. Both his grandparents had come
\nfrom the Netherlands to settle in Java at the turn of the century
\nand his parents, too, were born here. The fact that van der
\nSterren spent his childhood on a tea estate above the town of
\nSukabumi explains his taste for landscapes.<\/p>\n
Everything came to an end with World War II. Van der Sterren
\nwas interned in a Japanese camp in Ambarawa, Central Java, the
\ntea fields were destroyed and replaced by a clove plantation.<\/p>\n
Referring as they do to his experience in the Sukabumi
\nlandscape of his childhood, landscapes are presumably more to van
\nder Sterren than just places with buildings and trees. His
\nlandscapes are reminiscences of childhood, a kind of
\npsychological regression of the artist, in which all recent
\npsychological and material demands are channeled into the memory
\nof childhood's safety: under the secure wings of powerful
\nparents. As a Dutchman on a plantation at that time, the artist's
\nparents' position was socially powerful: in pre-World War II Java
\na plantation manager was a tuan, more like a small king whose
\nplantation was his small kingdom.<\/p>\n
Obviously, the high social level had psychological advantages.
\nHowever, to some extent, it also created distance from the
\nsurrounding people. Distance can be seen in the themes of Van der
\nSterren's paintings. Mountains, temples: all the landscapes are
\nof places with trees but no people.<\/p>\n
After the war van der Sterren and his parents went to New
\nZealand and settled in Wellington, where the young boy found that
\nhis interests always centered around the arts and he received
\nencouragement from the famous New Zealand artist Cendric Zavage.
\nHe became a member of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and
\ntraveled to many countries, painting landscapes.<\/p>\n
In 1983 Van der Sterren came to work in Indonesia and settled
\nin Jakarta, then in West Java, where he continues to paint
\nlandscapes and portraits in his studio in Subang. After two major
\nexhibitions in Jakarta (Duta Fine Arts Foundation) and Bandung
\n(Museum Barli) he has achieved strong recognition from
\ncollectors.<\/p>\n
The artist went to Bali during 1994 and was amazed by its
\nbeauty. His recent exhibition at the Nyoman Gunarsa Museum in
\nKlungkung, Bali, colorfully expressed that amazement. The
\npaintings still contain his reminiscences of childhood and the
\nsense of distance.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/van-der-sterren-paints-landscape-from-memory-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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