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.