Asboth records the story of a unique artist

Asboth records the story of a unique artist

Teguh Ostenrik, Transcending Time; Published and distributed by Galeri Teguh, 2000; Barbara Asboth; 250pp

JAKARTA (JP): When Barbara Asboth first met Teguh Ostenrik here in 1996, both his work and life seemed to resemble a necklace that had snapped, scattering all the precious pearls in different directions. Looking at his paintings, the art historian was inspired to string the necklace together.

Asboth knew that she did not have much time in Jakarta and so she gave up everything else, and with the zeal of a missionary she spent two years trying to understand Teguh.

The result is Transcending Time, a hard cover book of over 250 pages that tells the story of the unusual painter both in words and through illustrations of his work, beginning with his birth 50 years ago.

Although in catalog format, with information that is often repeated, the book is precious, especially since the art of documenting the works of contemporary artists in Indonesia is still to become a tradition.

The sixth child of a family of nine children, Teguh did not know a home for more than a few years. The family traveled constantly to different corners of Indonesia because of his father's job in the police.

He inherited the unusual name Ostenrik from his grandfather, the official artist at the Court of Solo who once painted a portrait of a goodwill ambassador from Austria. The ambassador was so pleased that he bestowed upon the painter the name Ostenrik (Austrian).

Everything seemed fine with Teguh until he was forced to join the faculty of medicine at Jakarta's Trisakti University to prepare himself for a prosperous career as a doctor. But Teguh's heart was elsewhere. He drove taxis at night time and soon had earned enough money to get a one-way ticket to Germany. The dream was to study drawing at Berlin's Hochschule der Kunste.

It was only after the fourth attempt that the fine arts department accepted him. Later he became one of the lucky ones to exhibit even while he was still a student.

His work was already up in Jakarta in 1980 at the Mitra Budaya, apart from galleries in Europe and the USA. From the canvas Teguh branched out with his art to reach out to people, drawing sketches in the subway while in New York and participating in dance performances. During these years Teguh earned for himself the reputation of being a versatile artist and prolific painter.

But he also became famous for changing his relationship with women, just as he changed residence in different cities. And Teguh has lived in quite a few cities including all over Europe, the USA and different parts of Asia.

Since his first marriage in 1974, it was estimated that Teguh was unable to remain committed to an intimate relationship for longer than four years, on average. Perhaps this was due to little Teguh not having had enough of mama Marsini, who had eight other children to look after?

However, the book is dedicated to his mother and in a thank you line to Ostenrik Tjitrosunarjo, his father, Teguh expresses gratefulness for giving him his own space and later being a best friend. In this respect Teguh is seen to transcend not just time but also experiences, both the pleasant and the unpleasant ones.

It was in 1988, perhaps an important year for him, that he was forced to take the most difficult decision of his life and return to Indonesia for good.

"He discovered that a German identity was encroaching on his Indonesian one. After some personal disappointments and several trips back to Java, he decided to return to Jakarta, in 1988, where he resides to this day," writes Asboth in the introduction.

He had given his all to integrate himself into his host country, momentarily suppressing his Indonesian identity. It was when he toyed with the idea of becoming a German national that his Indonesian identity reasserted itself, forcing Teguh to return home.

Once here he was reunited with his family and his past, and he visited places of his childhood. A Javanese teacher of meditation further rekindled different aspects of Javanese culture that lay dormant within him.

This period led to a period of transition, accompanied by intense meditation about life and about the position of the individual within the lifecycle, depicting these thoughts in a series of very abstract and colorful paintings titled Compositions-Time of Transition.

Once here he heard tradition speak to him in the voice of Nyai, or the goddess of the southern seas. A sovereign of the world below the Indian Ocean, the goddess inspired Teguh to delve deep into her realm in the waters.

When he emerged back on land he painted titles like Dua Ibu (Two Mothers) and Cumi Hijau (Green Cuttlefish). The silence of the world of water led him to listen to his own breath which he realized resonated with the sound of music. There is an entire chapter in the book titled The Spirit of the Goddess Nyai - A Hymn Dedicated to Nature.

In 1992 Teguh went to work in Bali where his thoughts on cosmology found further enlightenment. While there he designed a pyramid of used plastic bags in the north central Balinese village of Munduk in an effort to awaken environmental awareness. The series of paintings from Bali are listed under Poleng-Unity in Contrast, where Teguh insists that unity in diversity cannot be forced, but diversity is at its best when allowed to flourish through its own mutations.

Teguh is perhaps one of those rare painters who find themselves less inspired by Bali than Jakarta.

"Jakarta is where the action is, all the tension is," Teguh told The Jakarta Post, adding that his muse goes to sleep in Bali, surrounded by all that beauty, peace and calm.

Forever inspired by action, 1989 made Teguh go running back to Berlin to witness people grasping for freedom break down the wall, or the iron curtain that had divided the city into east and west Berlin for half a century. He bought four sections of the wall and shipped them to Jakarta for an installation he is still working on which is titled Menembus Batas (Transcending Limits).

A decade later he returned to the same theme in the six by three metre painting Gewaltuberwindung (Transcending Violence), illustrating the bloody confrontation that took place between unarmed students protesting against the government here in 1998, and the military.

For Teguh this was a moment when new ideas as represented by the youthful student community were trampled upon by the powerful military.

That painting has still not been sold. Teguh hopes that one day both the painting and the idea behind it will be bought by the military itself.

-- Mehru Jaffer