Art forgery, a thorn in Indonesia's cultural bleak side

By Putu Wirata

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): In the last few weeks, the Balinese art world has been heavily shaken by a case of art forgery involving the noted painter Nyoman Gunarsa and the art dealer Hendra Dinata.

The dispute between Gunarsa and Hendra, owner of Sinyo Gallery in Denpasar, began when the painter found a number of fake paintings bearing his signature and displayed in Hendra's gallery.

Gunarsa and his wife Indrawati accused the art dealer of forging his art works and selling them to the public.

Both painter and gallery owner have reported the case to the Bali Police Office but no solution has been found so far.

Art forgery has actually become common place in the island's art world. There are hundreds of art galleries and art shops in some of the more famous tourist destinations like Ubud in Gianyar, Sanur and Kuta.

One can easily find counterfeit paintings "signed" by famous painters. While other amateurs have adopted the painting styles, colors and subject matters of the Balinese masters.

These counterfeit paintings are perfectly rendered by the unknown artists. Anyone other than an expert would find it difficult to distinguish the fakes from the originals.

There are a number of sketches in Gunarsa's style done by talented junior artists. If people put Gunarsa's signatures on those paintings, they will undoubtedly be mistaken for the original.

Among Bali's favorite painters are Made Wianta, Kriyono, Sumadiyasa, Srihadi and many others. It would be hard to sue the "unknown" artists for imitating or adopting the styles and visual techniques of these popular painters, especially in Bali where artworks are still regarded as communal productions.

Collective art works can be seen in every art village or art shop on the island. When we visit an art village, we can see people contributing to the production of certain handicrafts like wooden animal statues depicting dolphins, ducks, zebras, birds, cats and so forth.

In addition, almost every artist in the village produces similar kinds of work and nobody would claim the title of pioneer or to hold property rights over the product.

In traditional fine art, creative rights are manifested in the form of a painters' signature on the work. The tradition only started in Bali in the l930s when German painter Walter Spies, Dutch artist Rudolf Bonnet and Balinese art patron Tjokorda Gde Agung Sukawati established the Pita Maha art community.

The works of the Pita Maha group were mostly uniform in terms of theme. They usually explored aspects of Balinese mythology and daily rural life. The works of each artist were not valued for their technical achievement but the ability to improve the composition and widen the thematic choices.

The late Gusti Ketut Kobot, for instance, was renowned for his Wayang (puppet) paintings. Painter Ida Bagus Made was recognized as a master of humorous themes in daily life, while Sobrat was well-known for his mastery of composition and color.

Contemporary artists and graduates of art institutes have started to leave the "culture of anonymity," but still hold on to the concept of collective creativity in the process of their artistic creations.

Artist Nyoman Erawan, for instance, used Balinese Hindu icons in his expressionistic abstract paintings in the late l980s and he is considered by some art critics as a post-traditional Avant Garde artist.

Afterwards, a number of young painters followed Erawan's style. For them, Erawan's creations were a part of the "creative epigone" because Erawan and other similar artists are not the founders of these creative arts.

"For me, it is important to have ethics in the creation of art. I would not claim that it is my own style. If somebody else can develop the style properly, we have to appreciate them," said Erawan.

So far, appreciation of an art work is not only important for art critics but also for owners of art galleries. Therefore, they have to posses moral ethics and a cultural vision and not merely seek profits.

If they sell fake paintings or they ask unknown artists to conduct art forgery, they have violated these moral ethics and conducted a serious cultural crime.

Whether we can build a perfect cultural platform in which people have a similar vision and idealism is a big question in the Indonesian art world.

Counterfeit paintings exploiting famous names are sold in hundreds of galleries in Bali and other places in Indonesia. With sophisticated techniques, skillful artists are now able to imitate the works of famous painters, and the imitation of an art work even without the fake signature is close enough to an art forgery.

In the country where corruption has become culture, the forgery of art is considered of minor importance.

The local fine art world has been contaminated by a corrupted mentality. These capricious people are everywhere, yet we don't know exactly who they are. They are disguised as art dealers, painters or other people.

An owner of an art gallery in Bali said he was frequently offered fake paintings of Affandi, Jeihan, Srihadi and even Pablo Picasso.

"I think those paintings were counterfeit. But I would not dare to say they were fake to those persons," said the owner who refused to be named.

Indonesia, he said, has not yet developed a standardized system to properly detect and deal with art counterfeiting. He suggested the government or art institutions apply such a system immediately in order to curb art forgery.

"Art lovers and art collectors can no longer rely on the credibility of art critics or gallery owners in determining the originality of an art work," he said.