Exhibition presents essence of abstract art

Exhibition presents essence of abstract art

By Chandra Johan

JAKARTA (JP): The presence of abstract painting in Indonesia
was once considered a "great sin". When nationalism was aroused
in the 1950s and realism in art was suggested, a number of
artists from Bandung, such as Achmad Sadali, Mochtar Apin and But
Mochtar, suddenly deviated from social realism and collectivity.
These artists, pioneering the abstract painting mode, were not
considered to be nationalists and received sharp criticism from a
number of artists and critics, such as Trisno Sumardjo, Basuki
Resobowo and Misbach Tamrin.

"Bandung was dedicated to the Western laboratory," wrote
Trisno Sumardjo in Siasat in 1954. "We are grasped tightly by
constructive arrangements of lines, colors and space," said
Basuki Resobowo in 1957 in the same media. Ten years after that,
Misbach Tamrin was despised with his criticism. "Abstract art
runs away to an obscurantism of forms, where the volume or theme
dissolves and is minced by color composition and fragments. So
what was left was a perforated framework without giving a clear
imagination about the realities in life," he wrote in an article
titled About the idea of Realism, published in Gelora on April
12, 1963.

Not only was abstract painting accused of bringing in
"cultural sin", but it was also considered useless to people's
struggle. If art should be dedicated to people, said supporters
of social realism, it should have themes understandable to the
grassroots people. And people would only understand the forms in
paintings when they are already known in real life, or when it is
already pictured in their thoughts, Misbach Tamrin said.

Abstract painting became a "sin" when it was opposed to
people's nationalism and social realism. Critics said the
presence of this style could be considered as part of a chain
which started with the round table conference, that is, the
beginning of compromise with capitalism and imperialism followed
by cultural compromise.

So abstractionism was considered to be part of an
imperialistic cultural aggression form. Finally, this problem
ended up with the problem of the East-West, which was
continuously debated until the end of the 1970s and did not find
a clear and thorough conclusion.

Yet the sharp and hard criticism did not discourage Achmad
Sadali, Oesman Effendi, Fajar Sidik, But Mochtar, Mochtar Apin
and other artists to develop this art genre.

The growth of abstract painting could be said to be personal
and always appears in every momentum and area. This seems to be
the reason why the Java Gallery in South Jakarta presents a great
number of Indonesian abstract painting exhibitions. Titled The
road of Abstract Painting Art in Indonesia, this gallery looks
ambitious in depicting the development of abstract paintings by
showing the works of 26 artists, from Achmad Sadali, Fadjar
Sidik, Nashar, Salim (Paris), Sunarya, Umi Dahlan and Edi
Sunaryo, to those of younger painters like Freddy Sofian, Heyi
Ma'mun, Tulus Warsito, Teguh Ostentrik, Syahrizal Pahlevi, Irawan
Karseno, Pridani Akbar, Yulianto Liestiono, Nyoman Erawan,
Nurzulis Koto, I Wayan Sika, I Made Sumadiyasa, IGP Sugandi, Heru
Ardiansyah, Herly Gaya, Hansen, Hanafi, Gugun Gunawan and Febri
Antoni. This effort should be valued appropriately, although it
does not properly represent abstract painters in Indonesia.

We can see several tendencies; for instance, the tendency to
present the "essence" of nature (abstract means "nucleus" and "to
generalize") and the order of form, from Achmad Sadali, Umi
Dahlan, Heyi Ma'mun, Hansen, Sunaryo, Freddy Sofyan, IGP Sugandi
and Febri Antoni, where each of their paintings demand a "seeing
culture" to precisely and closely trace the visual relations with
the experience of seeing nature. It seems that texture keeps an
important role in most of this genre, and the "prophet" here is
Achmad Sadali. All the space on Sadali's painting is a rich
visualization which keeps us observing calmly and precisely or
quietly musing.

Another tendency is the unison between geometric and organic
or biomorphic forms, such as from Fadjar Sidik and Salim, a
combination between order and disorder forms, from Tulus Warsito,
Teguh Ostentrik, Nyoman Erawan, Heru Ardiansyah, Hanafi and
Yulianto, and the tendency of expressive forms, from Irawan
Karseno, I Made Sumadiyasa and Syahrizal Pahlevi.

These tendencies do not mean to show special characteristics
in each work, because each work of a painter, who owns an almost
similar tendency, in fact, owns unique individual
characteristics.

Furthermore, they in fact do not show any changes or
significant development, such as in Heyi Ma'mun's or Umi Dahlan's
works. However, Heyi's, as well as Umi's, has specific
characteristics which cannot be compared with Sadali's works.
Each artists' work owns a generic style, generally similar to
others, and a specific style specifically different from others.
Each general characteristic from this abstract fine arts show is
a phenomenon about art ideology by its creator.

The tendency toward an order form, that is, visual comfort
with gestalt principles, or formalism, which grew and developed
from the 1960s or 1970s, shows a belief in the formal laws of two
dimensional space and its elements. Generally, they avoid "story"
and are more interested in the exploration of aesthetic elements
like texture, line and fused colors, which are repeated, made
variable, or opposed to each other. It is hard to deny that this
tendency was in the beginning developed by artists who were
educated at art academies. However, in the younger generation,
Irawan Karseno, Syahrizal Pahlevi, Hanafi, I Made Sumadiyasa,
Herly Gaya, Teguh Ostentrik and Yulianto see the exploration of
aesthetic elements does not look to be more important than
personal expressions as they believe in an emotional impulse.
Works of Irawan, Syahrizal and Sumadiyasa, for example, show
chaotic characteristics which appear from tense emotions.

The exhibition, which opened on Oct. 8, runs until Oct. 24.