Art market receives a welcome boost from speculators

Yusuf Susilo Hartono, Contributor, Jakarta

While development of Indonesia's fine art market has lately been marked by attempts to give young painters a boost through exhibitions and home auctions, the arts community has witnessed three notable phenomenons during this year.

First, Philip Morris changed its Southeast Asian painting competitions into a fine art contest without a particular emphasis on local content; second, the exhibition of forged paintings held at the Regent Hotel in Jakarta escaped legal scrutiny; and third, the newly-established Indonesian Sculptors Association lived up to its promises to help local sculptors through its first major exhibition at the Jakarta National Gallery from Nov. 15 to Dec. 4.

Tactics in the promotion of fine art works, especially paintings, became a hot topic following the disclosure of trends by Adi Wicaksono, an art observer from Yogyakarta, in his paper titled Seni Rupa Gorengan, Spekulan dan Pahala Akal Bulus (Boosted Fine Art, Speculators and Rewards for Tricks).

In his paper, he traces the process of how a painting reaches an objective price in a transaction, or to be more precise, how a price is fixed.

He observes the strong influence of new collectors around Magelang, Central Java, on the dynamism of fine arts in Yogyakarta.

In the past five years, Yogyakarta has really become a "producer of academic painters" through the Indonesian Arts Institute (ISI), he says.

Painters graduating from ISI have dominated the painting market overshadowing painters from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and the Jakarta Institute of Arts (IKJ).

Fine arts observer Agus Dermawan T believes that speculators are competing to sell the works of Nasirun, Erica, Made Sukadana and several other young painters.

One of the most significant developments in 2001 was the decision by U.S.-based company Philip Morris to change the nature of the regional arts competitions it sponsors.

No longer is Indonesian, Southeast Asian or even Asian content a prerequisite the works have to be associated with.

But the change of policy, under the pretext of universalism, seems contrary to the ongoing spirit of appreciating locality as the soul of post-modernism.

It is this appreciation for locality that has encouraged MTV Indonesia, for instance, to screen programs full of local content such as MTV Ampuh and MTV 100% Indonesia.

But the change in policy did not reduce painters' enthusiasm to take part in the Indonesia Art Award 2001, as a bridge to the ASEAN Art Awards 2002.

Painters living outside renowned art centers like Yogyakarta, Bandung, Jakarta and Denpasar, especially those living outside Java, still find it hard to sell their work.

A Padang painter said that collectors from Jakarta have not even bothered to eye works from West Sumatra painters.

For these struggling artists the fortune enjoyed by their colleagues in Yogyakarta -- who are "nurtured" in galleries and have the worth of their paintings boosted by brokers -- remains very much a fairy tale.

The past year also brought to the fore the strong suspicion that forgery is increasingly rife across the country.

The biggest scandal erupted during an exhibition of forged paintings at the Regent Hotel.

The copies on display included those from legends such as Picasso, Chagall, Renoir, Van Gogh, as well as Indonesian painters such as Affandi and Basuki Abdullah.

Though the police could have taken steps to pursue legal action, they apparently turned a blind eye.

The fine arts community itself remained very much impotent in fighting against such copyright violations.

In this context, the establishment of the Indonesian Sculptors Association (API) in Yogyakarta a year ago has already given some hope as it tries to bring together sculptors from various cities across the country under its umbrella while at the same time upholding the importance of copyrights.

But one major weakness is that art experts from ISI, ITB and IKJ, who should be at the forefront of taking action, have shown little interest. This is really a cause for concern in efforts to eradicate copyright violations in the fine arts.

As touched upon earlier, painters from ISI in Yogyakarta have made their presence felt in the past five years.

It is public knowledge that many ISI graduates and even students have "beaten" their own teachers.

Just drop by art galleries in Jakarta and you will find that most exhibitions are by ISI graduates and students.

Their dominance also extends in various fine arts competitions -- from the Philip Morris Arts Award to the Nokia Arts Award.

ISI painters have also played a major role in the development of contemporary fine art in Bali.

Nevertheless it is the ITB people that remain preponderant in arts circles.

Some suggest that ITB graduates focus more on the philosophy of the fine arts as they are technically weak in terms of creating pieces.

Like it or not, it must be accepted that the likes of Jim Supangkat and his ITB network remain in control of Indonesia's contemporary fine art discourses.

This by itself must be the fine art phenomenon of 2001.