Chinese art resurfaces

Chinese art resurfaces

Ahmad Solikhan's in-depth reporting about Chinese painting
(Chinese art resurfaces after thirty-two years of repression, The
Jakarta Post, March 5) deserves high credit.

His remarks that "the visitors (to the exhibition in
Yogyakarta), mostly older Chinese Indonesians, crowded in rapt
attention before the paintings on display, eagerly trying to
communicate with them" is a poignant reminder of the
unjustifiable and disreputable actions of the New Order in
suppressing the Chinese culture.

Consequently, most Indonesians below 50 have been shielded
from the Chinese culture. As Chinese calligraphy constitutes the
highest form of Chinese fine arts, no Chinese painting is
complete without the painter's fine poetic theme writing on
reserved spaces on top of the painting. Therefore, viewers not
literate in Chinese cannot comprehend fully a real Chinese
painting.

The third requisite that cannot go without is the painter's
own seal that represents his or her signature and identity.
Because the seal is a form of art itself. (The legendary painter
Qi Baishi was himself an accomplished seal engraver).

The viewer is more often than not enraptured by a painting,
because he has to relish the thematic writing besides the
painting itself. The Bangaos in Pwan Cho's painting should be
cranes instead of egrets. Because the clean white crane is the
epitome of noble, unblemished, uncorrupted character. In the same
vein, bamboo in Chinese painting is the symbol of uprightness and
resilience, pine tolerance and endurance, and plum blossom
perseverance.

Let us have more pointers from Ahmad Solikhan to enrich our
life with knowledge of fine arts.

LIEM SIAN TIE

Jakarta