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.