Exhibit shows the phenomena of the urban painters

By Chandra Johan

JAKARTA (JP): Galeri Milenium in Jakarta organized a painting exhibition recently titled Urban Community Phenomena. Participated in by 15 painters, the works on display certainly varied widely.

With such a too-wide and floating theme, the exhibition was only felt as a change of title, without attempting to show an urban paradigm, whether in the manifestation of the creations or in the artists' behavior. Perhaps it would have been more appropriate if the theme "urban society" were changed to "urban painters" because the exhibition featured the works of a number of painters, not of different professions.

The phenomena is interesting as it happens when exhibitions and painting business are centered in cities. Since the painting- art boom of more than 10 years ago, artists have gotten more chances to exhibit and market their works to art lovers and certain classes of society who grow in metropolises like Jakarta. Lately in Jakarta, almost every day there are painting exhibitions with the works for sale, especially in hotels and office buildings.

With such a trend, a number of painters are pushed to urbanize and gamble with their fate in big cities. An urban-mentality attitude for each modern society that doesn't want to miss an opportunity. That also does not look to slip away, influencing artists' behavior, and this symptom can roughly be seen in several tendencies of certain groups of painters.

First, there is a group of painters who attempt to adjust themselves to the appreciative condition of the society of art lovers. This group is usually very tolerant of the market laws rather than of the dictum "art for art's sake" and "personal expression". To them, a work of art is alive, a source of living, to provide sustenance for themselves and their families.

And more so, they already realize that life in a big city like Jakarta has proved be hard, where dreams and art romanticism are forced to be buried. In the manifestation of their creations they follow society's taste. The painting style portraying the legong dance, mother and child, still life, scenery (especially rice fields), are the favored themes. So it is reasonable if we see often a reminiscence in the manifestation of their creations.

In this group there are always artist wannabes who also have the technical capability but who do not let this field become a living. So we also find several celebrities, rich mothers, government officials or businesspeople who paint. The success of these artist wannabes is often more profitable because their social status has been welcomed by society. (Ratih Sanggarwati, Triwatty Marciano, Firman Ichsan, Dewi Motik and some others do not let their fate depend on this profession).

The second group of painters are those who tend to follow the taste of the era and attempt to fit in with the development of contemporary art in their own as well as in foreign countries.

If they rely solely on painting, they will also always face contradictions or dilemmas. On the one hand, they want to get an avant-gardist degree, pioneer, but on the other hand, they also want society to "make them live".

In short, they are always in a condition between following the "buyer-market" and the "discourse-market", between a name and money. This situation is not only experienced by urban artists nowadays, but also by modern artists in general.

The third group of painters believe in "self-expression", without caring about the "discourse-market". But they care about money. The target they want to achieve as an urban painter is how art lovers (of course not only love without money) appreciate their self-expression, no matter whether its manifestation is really expression or not.

Contradictions and dilemmas are also often experienced by this group. To support their art and themselves, they are forced to do other jobs, whether as a land broker or merely making an illustration for the mass media. This kind of choice is considered more honorable than just accepting an order of photograph painting or "prostituting oneself" by painting things that are not in line with their self-expression.

The fourth group are those who are clever in lobbying and cooperate with companies and office buildings. They accept orders to paint for the need of office art, like banks, hotels and other buildings. Because the orders are big, the prices of the works they supply are usually far from the market standard that counts. In this case, they are sure that a painting is no different from a design or another commodity.

This reality is a phenomenon that characterizes urban painters, although in general they do it silently. Contemporary painter Irawan Karseno, who also participates in urban society exhibitions, could be said to be the most realistic about the reality of metropolises. He puts upside-down the values by attaching the profession to his name-card as an "art trader", and in that way he is freed from the load as an artist.

The fifth group are those who are established painters. Their works are widely welcomed. Financially, they are secure. Therefore, also, they are finally nailed to their style because it is that style that makes them live and grow.

The Ancol Art Market is a good example of an urban painters' community. There we can find painters of different origins, backgrounds, motivations and styles. Because they choose that place as to make a living, people consider them as mere traders.

In fact, the urban reality of Ancol Art Market does not make their creativity stagnant, especially when we have seen the works of Sapto, Munadi, Achmad Syahri, Cubung and many others. They realize that to become urban in this metropolis, they must be willing to face the market reality, although they ought not to sacrifice quality of art or follow the taste of the market.

So, this is where we find the group of real urban painters.