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