Cartoonist Sutanto's art dabbles in fantasy

By Parvathi Nayar Narayan

JAKARTA (JP): To appreciate the art of T. Sutanto is to enter the realm of the fantastic and the surreal. His images are drawn from a rich repertoire of fable, folklore and dreams.

Appropriately then, The Kingdom of Fantasy is the name given to a selection of his paintings and prints, on view at Galeri Lontar on Jl. Utan Kayu, East Jakarta.

One of the first impressions at the exhibition, which will last until Wednesday, is that the artist employs not just a range of styles, but a variety of media as well. Significantly, Sutanto is an artist who accords the same degree of importance to all the media he works with.

"In Indonesia, the medium is important. Oil painting is accorded the premier position, while other media are regulated to only a secondary position," explains Asikin Hasan, executive director of Galeri Lontar, said in an interview.

He says: "Sutanto feels it is the idea behind the painting that is important, not the medium in which it is painted. Even if it is painted using simple techniques, if the idea is good, the painting is good."

Born in 1941, T. Sutanto graduated with a Master of Science degree from the School of Art and Design of New York's prestigious Pratt Institute (1986). However, since 1970 he has taught graphic art and illustration at the Faculty of Art and Design, ITB, Bandung. He is also a cartoonist; his cartoons have been published in The Jakarta Post and in calendars.

Sutanto does not see his paintings as heavy or dark. Primarily he wants his art to make people happy. Take Tjap Kaki Tiga, a silk screen print, that is obviously inspired by Pop Art. Using familiar commercial imagery, it is created in imitation of the matchbox labels of yore. The piece is strongly graphic in bright shades of turquoise, red and yellow with black lettering.

With its deliberately quaint use of idiom and spellings in the text, the print feels like an anachronism; it is very funny, according to Asikin, when viewed in the contemporary Indonesian context. The print indicates too Sutanto's dual background of graphic and fine art.

In most of Sutanto's work we see a collection of images compiled and presented together. The strongest image in the silkscreen print Landscape 2 is a set of teeth with blue gums. They leer at the viewer from the middle of the picture. It is derived from the sign boards of the traditional dentists of the past. Together with this is seen a rising sun -- drawn as though by a child in elementary school -- some sailing ships, floral and geometric motifs.

It is an odd collection of images. Obviously they are drawn from the artist's own experience of different graphic visuals.

While the composition is tight, the interpretation of these images is left open to the viewer. It could be a memory of the artist's childhood, or even an ironic reference to the whole genre of landscape painting.

Images

It can be argued that some work borders on being an overly self-conscious group of images. The surreal quality is appealing, but best seen in his acrylic paintings such as The Horse Rider. The painting surface here is very heavily textured. The palette is dominated by bright colors, a rich scarlet, vivid blues, cadmium yellow. The eponymous subject of the painting, the horse rider, dominates the visual imagery.

The horse rider does seem to be a favorite image. It appears often in other paintings along with motifs like butterflies, the sun, eyes and flowers. These images are in a sense symbols for they evoke memories and moods within the minds of viewers. It brings to the fore an experience or idea familiar to groups of people. The sun for instance is a universally recognized symbol. Horse riders are de rigeur in most myths and are certainly part of Javanese folklore.

Apparently though, there are no uniquely personal series of references here, unlike the work of some surreal artists. For example in the work of, say, Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), oft used symbols had very intense personal meanings. The low enclosing wall was apparently a reference to a dominant mother, the speeding train just beyond, a strong desire to escape. De Chirico incidentally, is considered to be one of the earliest surrealists or sometimes a precursor to the surrealists.

Of the 39 works of Sutanto on show, most were created in 1995 and 1996. There are some earlier works too, Landscape 2 (1975) and Traveling, a silkscreen print dominated by motifs from North Sumatra (1982). In Composition with Papers (1992) there are traces of formalism mixed up with the decorative.

Wanita is unlike any of the other paintings, and somewhat jarring. It depicts a nude pregnant woman with a rat on her knee, all in flat black silhouette. Perhaps, the artist sought to portray humor, but first impressions are of something frightening, something gone awry.

There would thus appear to be an eclectic range of styles. As one views the artwork there is certainly growth seen with the passage of time. The later works such as The Horse Rider and The Cross Roads of Life are freer, more exuberant.

In the latter painting, interlocking grid-like lines divide the picture planes into partitions. Some are filled with motifs, the horse rider, the eye, the sun. The title suggests a painting about portentous, life altering decisions, but the mood of the painting is light, even upbeat.

Though he has exhibited extensively in group exhibitions, The Kingdom of Fantasy is only Sutanto's second solo exhibition, after a gap of about 20 years. Asikin Hasan explained that this could be owing to a number of reasons. "Firstly a solo needs a body of work that can fit into a theme, and secondly you need a reasonable number of paintings. For group shows by contrast you need far fewer works." he adds, highlighting a common problem, "Solos are also very expensive and its not easy finding sponsorship."

Sutanto's paintings are a rich amalgamation of images, colors and ideas. It is a somewhat surreal dialog; the viewer is invited to participate in it and find meanings for himself.