Nashar, Art, Life and Nature
================================================ Title : Nashar oleh Nashar
(Nashar by Nashar) By : Nashar Published by : Yayasan Bentang Budaya,
Yogyakarta, 2002
viii + 301 pp =================================================================
This book comprises a memoir of the late painter Nashar and a collection of his contemplation about life and art, known as his nocturnal letters.
Nashar, in his life time as an artist, was comparable with the fiery and rebellious poet Chairil Anwar, the pioneer of Indonesian modern poetry.
His memoir shows that he had a very strict father and therefore, he had the potential of rebellion in his mind. Later when he was a painter, he showed his rebellion to the norms in painting as he put forward his principle of non-technique, non- concept and non-esthetics. This sounds a strange principle for an artist, especially because technique and esthetics seem to be intertwined, in any art genres.
Reading through his memoir will show us how Nashar found it very difficult to enter the realm of painting. By fluke, he could join a painting course led S. Sudjojono, now considered the Father of Modern Indonesian Art. Unfortunately, Sudjojono always returned his works saying that he (Nashar) had no talent but that he could try again. This happened again and again until one day he realized why Sudjonono said he was not talented but then still asked him to join his painting session. Sudjojono wanted him to practice and practice and practice to make himself a painter.
While from Sudjojono he learned to paint an object with full attention paid to details, his acquaintance with another great artist, Affandi, led him to another principle in painting: Do not attend too much to details. Just give the impression.
So Nashar, who had two great masters as his teachers, finally developed his own principle as referred to earlier. Once when he stayed in Bali, he would like to paint nature and was surprised to find that nature was a good composition. Nature shows its balance from which ever you see it. It struck him, then, that the same was true in painting. Regard your painting as nature and everything is in balance. This thought radically changed Nashar's principle in art. He did not believe in technique in the way it was academically defined.
He believed in nature. As you deal with real nature and real life, he maintained, your technique is the result of your seriousness in capturing the shadow of life. He believed that nature was perfectly in balance. If you deal with real nature with a particular concept, then the result of your work won't be satisfactory because of your own intervention. But if you forget concepts and techniques, you will be able to approach nature as it is. Nature develops by itself without pre-arranged concepts and techniques.
Nature, he writes, is a perfect composition. So, you must treat your canvas as nature and approach your painting the way you approach nature. If you put yourself in this position, so Nashar believed, you will some day find yourself in a position in which techniques, concepts or even esthetics itself become no longer necessary. At this point, you can draw or paint something on anything, using any medium. Nashar practiced this himself in his life time. He, for example, made sketches on any waste paper, using, for instance, just a piece of charcoal.
Obviously, Nashar would like people to liberate their minds when facing paintings or when working on a canvas. With these inhibitions being reduced to the minimum, people can freely enjoy or create paintings, free from the shackles of any theoretical knowledge.
Also an interesting part of this memoir is his description of the struggle between the free-minded artists, like him, and their leftist counterparts in early 1960s. As he was a really free- minded artist, he would not mind joining a discussion with important figures from the leftist Lekra (the Institute of People's Culture) or the leftist-cum-nationalist LKN (National Cultural Institute). He would not mind engaging himself in long debates with the artists from Lekra or LKN because he believed such debates would serve as a means to put his own belief to the test. Unfortunately, only a few shared his ideas.
Nashar was later involved in the declaration of the Cultural Manifesto along with like-minded free artists and writers across the country. It is interesting, at this juncture, to note that Nashar, who, in his artistic creed, did away with concepts, was eventually also drawn into the wrangling between the leftist and the free-minded artists.
While his memoir tells us episodes of his life - how he became a painter and developed himself, the collection of 16 nocturnal letters contain his contemplation and reflection upon life and art. It is here that the philosophical Nashar manifests himself through his train of thought. Reading these letters will further tickle our curiosity about what life is and how it is related with art. -- Lie Hua)