Nashar, Art, Life and Nature

Nashar, Art, Life and Nature

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Title : Nashar oleh Nashar

(Nashar by Nashar)
By : Nashar
Published by : Yayasan Bentang Budaya,

Yogyakarta, 2002

viii + 301 pp
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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)