Batik painting: Success story from the past

Asip A. Hasani, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

For visitors, Yogyakarta is not only one of the country's ancient cities but also the center of batik painting. But its popularity as the city of batik is on the decline.

Almost 10 years ago, galleries displaying batik paintings were found in almost every corner of the city. For visitors, buying a piece of hand-made batik was proof enough that they had visited the place.

Times, however, have changed. In the past few years, almost all of the villagers from Kampong Taman Sari, located near the Yogyakarta royal palace, earned a living from making or selling batik paintings. Now, less than 10 households earn an income based on the ancient profession and only a few showrooms and galleries and a course in batik-painting still survive.

"At least there are some people who still carry on the profession as batik craftsmen, part of our culture handed down from generation to generation," 41-year-old batik painter Supriyatno said.

Supriyatno has spent over half his life making batik paintings. He began crafting batik from his early years in senior high school when he lived with his parents, who were also batik painters in Taman Sari village.

Life seemed to be so easy for batik-painting craftsmen those days. Earnings from the sale of batik paintings were more than enough to pay his school fees at the Yogyakarta-based Institute of Indonesian Arts (ISI) and his living expenses.

Also from the sale of his works, he was able to buy two plots of land where he then built a house and a gallery. But unfortunately, that success did not last long. In the early 1990s, he was forced to sell his house as the popularity of batik painting had started to fade.

He also had to close the gallery and subsequently turned it into a place for his wife and three children to live. "This house is but a memory of the batik painting glory era I once experienced," he says.

Yogyakarta is the original location of batik painting. Painter and famous choreographer Bagong Kussudiardjo, batik craftsman Kuswadji and painter Aming Prayitno are among the few who, in 1960s, invented a new painting technique through the adoption of batik-making techniques.

Thanks to those veteran artists, batik, which used to be merely a raw material for traditional clothing, especially Javanese costumes, began to receive recognition in the early 1970s as a work of art, displayed in large galleries or offices, along with other modern paintings. In a way, batik painting has a unique color quality that ordinary water-and oil-based paints do not possess. A small batik painting can fetch hundreds of thousands of rupiah. A batik painting that uses fine cloth can sell for millions of rupiah.

Batik painting was very popular in the 1970s when almost every batik painting gallery in the city was always packed with both foreign and local tourists.

Famous artists such as F. Agus, Bambang Utoro and Amri Yahya attained popularity due to their outstanding batik painting work.

The popularity of hand-made batik paintings, however, encouraged large-scale batik producers to use modern printing technology to reproduce batik paintings. Machine-made batik paintings were mushrooming and could be found at almost every corner of the town, priced at only Rp 15,000 to Rp 25,000 each.

"Without detailed knowledge of batik, people can barely tell a hand-made batik painting crafted in accordance with traditional batik-making methods," a veteran batik craftsman from kampong Taman Sari explained.

Despite such a problem, many galleries still display and sell hand-made ones. But the sharp decline in foreign tourists during the past two years has further damaged the business. Some have closed and many batik painters have had to change their profession due to the slump.

"However, I believe batik here will never die. It is part of our culture and will always remain close to our hearts," Supriyatno said expressively.

The hard times currently being experienced by batik craftsmen, he says, will probably turn out to be a kind of "natural selection" of genuine batik craftsmen, whose work is original, authentic and creative.

Supriyatno, who has experienced both the ups and downs of batik painting, insists on devoting his life to the profession as a craftsman in batik painting. Although business is not as good as it used to be, orders still keep coming in. "Many foreign buyers still come here and buy," he said.

For Supriyanto, creativity would not end simply due to the declining market. Supriyatno and his colleagues have, for two years, developed a new type of batik painting to cope with the market slump.

His new creations are still related to the manufacture of handmade batik paintings. The difference is only in the use of the painting materials. In his new creations, he uses a woven eceng gondok (water plant) as the medium for his batik paintings.

Supriyanto's new batik painting style has attracted curiosity. He has, for example, been invited to display his new paintings at an exhibition to be held in The Hague, the Netherlands, early in July.

"One day I will again have my own batik painting gallery; that's been my dream for years," he says.