Darga put RI artists on global map

Darga put RI artists on global map

By Jean Couteau

JAKARTA (JP): When art connoisseurs visit Bali, what they are
normally looking for are old traditional Kamasan paintings or
works of modern Indonesian masters, both of which they can find
in the main galleries of the island. Now they may come for
Picasso, Renoir and others.

The Darga gallery opened its new premises on Sept. 2 with an
exhibition of some of the greatest names of modern western art
presented together with works of the most famous Indonesian
masters. The exhibition will last Sept. 23. Besides Picasso and
Renoir, there are Corot, Chagall, Matisse, Braque, Leger, Dufy,
Rouault, and the lesser masters Lhote, Hayden, Corneille,
Foujita, Kisling and Buffet, while on the Indonesian side, one
notices names such as Soedjojono, Hendra Gunawan, Affandi,
Nashar, Wianta and Erawan. With this exhibition, called "Modern
Masters of Indonesia and Europe", the Indonesian art scene is
becoming fully "international".

Such at least is the intention of the Gallery's owner, Jais
Dargawijaya. An ambitious young woman, she has for years chased
masters' works in auction houses and artists' studios, and she
has now come up with this peculiar confrontation of eastern
(Indonesian) and European (mainly French) masters. This
exhibition is a milestone just by the very fact that it is taking
place. It informs us of the coming of age of the Indonesian art
world, whose dealers -- Jais has no reluctance describing herself
this way -- are now claiming a place for themselves on the
international scene.

Previous exhibitions of modern western masters in Indonesia
have never been as complete or as impressive as this one. For the
first time, we have in Darga a genuine Indonesian gallery dealing
in western masters for the Indonesian market. Western art is
becoming the "exotic craze" for Indonesian connoisseurs. Jais
does not stop there, though. She also intends to take Indonesian
artists to Europe, where she is scheduled to open a gallery next
year in Paris.

Should we compare western and Indonesian modernism? Perhaps
not. The European painters have almost all played a pioneering
role. In their work, elements are present which have
revolutionized the way we see and represent reality and art
itself. Renoir for example -- whose work at Darga's looks almost
"ordinary" -- has played an important role in changing our
perception and knowledge of light, movement and color, while
Picasso and Braque have taught us that a work of art is always
"constructed" from pieces of "perception". Indonesian artists can
only be different, as they operate against a different historical
and cultural background. Like all artists from the West and
modern East alike, they too are inheritors of the early modernist
painters, they are free from any convention of form and color.
What they can contribute is a rethinking and reformulation of the
symbols, colors and forms of their rich culture, on a par with
artists from other parts of the worlds.

Among the works exhibited, some warrant particular attention.
The name Corot may not draw crowds in Indonesia, but he is one of
the greatest painters of the 19th century. His Chaumiere devant
un rideau de peupliers (Cottage Before a Row of Poplars) is a
classical example of the French Realist school which preceded
Impressionism. Corot knows all the tricks and rules of classical
representation, but he makes them simple and imperceptible,
combining volumes in a luminous atmosphere of grays in a manner
that foreshadows the impressionists.

In Renoir's Jeune Fille sur le Sentier (Young Girl on a Path),
we recognize the subtle variations in light and the imperceptible
movements of leaves and other natural objects which are
trademarks of the impressionists. From Matisse, L'Atelier a
Lutrin (Studio in Lutrin) is an intermediary work announcing the
burst of creativity typical of the artist's later life. In Les
Cabines we have a good example of Dufy's early fauvist days,
although he had not yet evolved his peculiar brushstroke.
Rouault's Soleil Couchant (Sunset) displays the artist's typical
blend of fauvism and expressionism.

But arguably the best pieces from the European masters are the
cubist ones. Picasso's Profile of a Woman in an Armchair is
classical, displaying the usual combination of frontal and
profile view which so shocked the public before making the
painter's reputation. As for Braque's Verre et Raisins, this is
the exhibition's real masterpiece. The inventor of cubism,
together with Picasso, does not simply "analyze" perception of
the visible, nor does he break down its representation into
geometrical elements, as in early cubism, he is going a step
further, reinventing reality around the pretext of glass and
grapes.

In this work, aesthetic concerns combine with theoretical
ones, and the cubist painter turns into a colorist. Fernand
Leger's Nature Morte (Still life) displays the meeting point of
cubism and surrealism, where the cubist technique of
decomposition of reality integrates with the ethereal world of
surrealist dreams. The other works are relatively minor, with the
exception of the two Chagall. One, made during WWII, shows the
crucifixion of Christ, the hope of the crucified Jew in an
atmosphere of darkness, while the other is a visual parable on
the theme of love. Mention should be made also of Corneille, a
member of the post-WWII Cobra Group, whose poetic mythology in La
Reine de Saba presages the comic strip of Boisrond and Combas in
the 1980's.

Among the Indonesian painters, two draw particular attention.
Composition IV by Nashar, in his "Matisse-like" play of colors,
confirms him as one of the best Indonesian abstract painters of
the last three decades. While Srihadi's Two Dancers are yet
another exercise in the magic of color -- red on red, white on
white -- in the artist's long pursuit of the essence of things.

There is more indeed. Not all artists can be discussed here.
If there is a critique to make about this exhibition, indeed it
is its eclecticism. Several schools are represented, French
realism (Corot), cubism (Picasso, Braque, Leger, Hayden), fauvism
(Dufy, Matisse), cobra (Corneille), but too few works of each are
exhibited to clearly show the evolutionary process from the one
to the other, while abstract and contemporary works are dropped
altogether.

Will Darga really be a meeting point of cultures? We sincerely
hope so, as we hope the cultural encounters of the future will be
addressed not only to collectors, but also to the people at
large. Globalization is also education.