Artist Gansser conquers spirit of the unknown

By Mehru Jaffer

JAKARTA (JP): What Asia has obviously succeeded in doing to Luca Gansser, 56, is to have made him turn himself inside out.

In the 40-odd paintings by the Swiss artist on display here it is his soul that is seen hanging by the stroke of a brush and the smear of much paint on canvas after canvas. It also seems that Gansser is now on the verge of conquering the spirit of the unknown. He tries to do away with the externalities of life's landscape and concentrate on capturing what may lie beyond.

This is no mean achievement for a Swiss, who are known as reserved but affluent people from the landlocked, neutral space of central Europe; it is said they prefer talking to their deep forests and mysterious mountains than to each other.

Gansser is definitely quite a different kind of a Swiss. He was born in Bogota, Colombia, and had traveled all the way to Bhutan once to study Thanka painting. Even within Switzerland, he prefers to live in Lugano, the province culturally closer to the effusive Italians as compared to the very Germanic province of Zurich and the distinct French-influenced Geneva. He has lived in Trinidad, Iran and Mexico as well.

In the 1970s, he globe trotted from one corner of the earth to the other, from Canada to Russia, spending many years in India, Australia and South Africa. Accompanied by all this physical trampling of the globe has also been a journey within, that seems to be leading him now, if his paintings are to be believed, to some place truly ethereal.

For the past four years Indonesia has been a special obsession with Gansser. While visiting Australia in 1996, it was only logical that he would come to Indonesia. He eventually did and made friends with many a local artist.

Most of the paintings on display are from the extensive work he did last year while he was here. In She Had a Dream, a woman rests on a canopy on stilts surrounded by water-filled paddy fields and the dreams painted around her are sometimes erotic and sometimes banal. In Tomorrow's Sunshine, the canvas glows with hope with colors close to the yoke of an egg dominate.

"To understand Gansser, it is important to study many of his paintings," explained Didier Hamel of the Duta Fine Arts Foundation, referring to the superb collection of the painter's work with Dieter Garbade, president director of PT Roche Indonesia and a close friend of the artist for four decades.

Then it is possible to fully appreciate the cosmic sensations created by Gansser and also the concept of the holy world that is too mystic to be religious. Indeed there is a glimpse of the Buddha or Buddhism each time Gansser uses pale yellow to create a golden hue representing the unseen. But he is not shy to indulge in a riot of colors in honor of animistic gods and goddess as depicted in many a folk culture of ancient Asian societies as well. The mountain-like peaks of temples often seen disappearing into the horizon are a recurring theme with Luca.

He captures the thousand and one activities of worldly life in little squares, dividing up many a canvas, both big and small, with the main phenomenon depicted much larger than life in the center of some other canvases. In Appearance, it is a shimmering Buddha sprayed in yellow with all the calm and beauty associated with the image of the master who seems to look radiantly peaceful even in the middle of colorful chaos.

Gansser does not paint only on paper or canvas but picks up whatever may seduce his fantasy from the top of a tin box to an abandoned bark of a tree. On a piece of square iron he has painted in oil the morning bird while the night bird is white against a colorful background of temples, devotees, patches of green and streaks of blue.

Bamboo Temple is oil on metal and bamboo, Mirror is oil on metal and wood with a little bit of natural rust left on the exhibit in memory of either the aging past or the decay to come in the future. Indonesia Duaribu is again awash with much yellow just like Windows 2000 and High Hopes, with many circles and the steeple of holy places soaring into unknown heavens and gates within gates, representing perhaps the eternal hope of human beings.

And most hopeful of them all seems Gansser himself as he depicts the center piece of Outer Islands with the red from the fire of the setting sun. There is some ash and smoke around as well but the dominant color is again a transparent yellow. And in, Southeast Asia Rising, he gives the feeling that nirvana is only a corner away.

The exhibition is open until Jan. 29 at Duta Fine Arts Foundation, Jl. Kemang Utara 55A (Tel. 7990226).