Big surprises at auction, including Sukarno watercolor
Big surprises at auction, including Sukarno watercolor
Carla Bianpoen, Contributor/Jakarta
Indonesia's first president, the late Sukarno is widely known for
his passion for art, but only a handful of people actually knew
that he was a fine painter as well.
On June 6, the 350 collectors and art enthusiasts packing the
Aryaduta Hotel Ballroom in Central Jakarta had the auspicious
chance to see one of his authentic watercolor paintings,
estimated to be worth between Rp 6 to 8 million, but finally
fetching a price of Rp 70 million in the Larasati auction.
The watercolor entitled Mountain Lake, which Sukarno painted
during his exile in Flores, now part of East Nusa Tenggara
province, from 1934 to 1939, had been his gift to the Flores-
based Dutch doctor Ave Lallemant.
Dr. Lallemant's daughter, who decided that it should be owned
by an Indonesian, submitted it to the auction. She will certainly
be surprised at the high price it sold for.
Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands had also been a painter,
but her paintings never sold for as much.
With auctions, the outcomes are mostly unpredictable, with
prices fluctuating along with the wishes of the prospective
buyers on hand.
This was particularly evident in the bidding for I Dewa Putu
Mokoh's painting entitled Woman and Child, for which the first
bid was Rp 2 million, but ultimately went for Rp 17 million to
the buyer who seemed to be intent to get the piece, insisting on
raising the price in a furious competition. Another of Mokoh's
pieces went for Rp 12 million.
Another hit was the Dutch painter Willem Doijewaard's Figures
in an Extensive Temple Complex, in colored chalk on paper, which
brought in Rp 260 million, after an initial bid of Rp 22 million.
Arie Smit's Temple in Bali (1979), 72 x 54 cm, went for Rp 220
million -- twice its initial bid -- while Arifien's Pasar Ikan
Betawih (Betawi Fish Market) of 1979, oil on board, 25 x 30 cm,
started at a modest Rp 10 million bid, but ended up going for Rp
75 million.
In the flower painting category, the Indonesian painter
Awiki's Bunga Lely dalam Vas Kristal (Lily Flower in Crystal
Vase), (2002), 95 x 80 cm, was had for Rp 50 million, up from the
initial bid of Rp 27 million, and the Chinese painter Chen Ya
Jie's Beauty under the Sun (2004), 80 x 60 cm, set one bidder
back Rp 75 million after a starting bid of Rp 20 million.
Siauw Tik Kwie's Bunga Krisan (Chrysanthemum) (1970), 72 x 55
cm, went for Rp 45 million -- slightly below the lowest estimate,
and Smit's Flowers in a Pot (2000), 20 x 26 cm, brought the gavel
down at Rp 18 million, slightly above the highest estimate.
The competition for the last of 21 batches of gouache on paper
was particularly remarkable. It featured several different types
of paintings and sketches of Indonesian landscapes by Gustave
Bettinger, a relatively anonymous unknown painter who was born in
France and lived in Sukabumi, West Java, on a plantation that
belonged to his wife's family.
The first lot, containing 23 sketches, went for just Rp 3.5
million. The prices of the following lots, however, showed a
sharp increase. One lot, containing 14 sketches of various media
and sizes and offered toward the end of the auction, took in Rp
28 million.
Similarly, two landscape paintings by Ernst Dezentje, Sawah
Landscape in the Preanger with Mountains in the Distance (1972),
30 x 47 cm, and Landscape with a Lake and a Bird on the branch of
the Tree (1972), 47.5 x 48.5 cm, were sold at Rp 6 million each,
but View of a Lake and Volcano in the Distance, (1972), 63 x 101
cm, yielded Rp 40 million -- five times its highest estimate.
"In Jakarta we primarily cater to the Indonesian public," says
Daniel Komala of the Larasati/Glerum Auction House, which was
established here in April 2000, but has since branched out to
Singapore.
The works of Itji Tarmizi made their first appearance in an
auction of this scale, and that particularly appealed to
Indonesians. Tarmizi was an up-and-coming painter in the 1960s,
but he disappeared after the 1965 coup plot blamed on the
Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). He hid out in his home village
in West Sumatra in fear of being killed or imprisoned because of
his affiliation with Lekra, which was the art/public relations
arm of the PKI.
With hearing and speech impairments, he became even more
isolated. He died in a Jakarta hospital in 2001, just after a
solo exhibition had opened at Gallery One. His oil painting
entitled Menatap Fajar (Gazing into the Sunset), 147 x 298 cm,
went for a jaw-dropping Rp 680 million.
Other big catches included Affandi's Old Banyan Tree (1969),
100 x 137 cm, which fetched Rp 650 million (from a starting bid
of Rp 350 million), S. Sudjojono's Sejuta Bintang di Langit
(Millions of Stars in the Sky) (1975), 80 x 52 cm, going for Rp
600 million, almost tripling its estimate of Rp 220 million.
Of Srihadi Sudarsono's five paintings in the auction, his View
of a Village in Andalusia (1977), 107 x 85 cm, was the most
popular, bringing in Rp 300 million after initial estimates of
between Rp 150 and Rp 200 million.
Affandi's other five paintings did not go for as much as
expected. Even Kaabah dan Tujuh Matahari (Kaabah and Seven Sun),
(1983), 124 x 150 cm, which sold for Rp 480 million, was below
the minimum estimate of Rp 500 million.
Other big names like Le Majeur, Mochtar Apin, Hendra Gunawan,
Djoko Pekik, Dullah, Sudjana Kerton, Dede Eri Surpia, Ivan Sagito
and others, also went at prices either slightly above or way
below the estimates in the catalog.
The auction included two bronze sculptures from Gregorius
Sidharta Soegijo's Ayam Jantan (The Cock), 2003, and Penari
Topeng (Mask Dancer), 2001, which sold for Rp 32 million and Rp
20 million respectively, while another bronze sculpture by Redy
Rahadian, Bermain II (Playing II), 2004, went for Rp 9 million.
With 156 lots -- 84 percent of the total of 185 paintings --
sold for a total of Rp 13 billion, Larasati's 9th auction was
still satisfactory, and their success with some of the work of
some relatively unheralded artists was a pleasant surprise for
the Larasati directors, who hope to encourage the rise of a new
generation of art collectors.