Exhibition reveals Asian's vibrant esthetic energy

Exhibition reveals Asian's vibrant esthetic energy

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

This September turns out to be an early Christmas for art buffs
on Bali with two major exhibitions showing simultaneously in the
island's cultural village of Ubud.

The 18th Exhibition of the Asian Watercolor Confederation was
opened early this month when the Pre Bali Biennale held the
second of its planned four-week long exhibitions.

The Indonesian Watercolor Society (IWC) hosts the event, which
involves 132 painters from nine watercolor associations in
Indonesia, China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Singapore, Korea,
Myanmar, Malaysia and Thailand.

With 31 participating artists, Indonesia is the largest
presence in the exhibition, followed closely by Korea and China.

The exhibition also displays the works of 17 invited artists
from several countries, including Australia, the Philippines and
the United States.

These accomplished watercolorists include Donald Stuart and
Leslie Friend of Australia, Paul Taksumi Nagano of the United
States, Chang Fee Ming of Malaysia, Lee Man Fong of Singapore,
Srihadi Soedarsono of Indonesia and Bali's own maestros, Lempad
and Gunarsa.

Held in the spacious and beautiful Agung Rai Museum of Arts
(ARMA) in the heart of Ubud, the exhibition will run until Sept.
30.

Classic themes

Sixty percent of the exhibited works are rural landscapes or
beautiful still lifes of fruits and flowers.

This classical approach is particularly evident in the works
of watercolorists from countries with long traditions of
watercolor painting, such as China and Japan.

However, most of the painters succeeded in compensating for
this "stagnation" through the dynamic exploration of new
techniques and interpretations.

Landscape by Hong Kong watercolorist Mok Chi Sing, is a
beautiful example of that dynamism. In the skilled, mature hands
of Mok Chi Sing, a city by the sea is a wondrous arrangement of
geometric forms in vivid colors.

In turn, the overlapped and intersected shapes of the city
form an image of a couple locked in a warm embrace; a landscape
of love.

Another Hong Kong watercolorist, Li Kam Wah, is one among a
small number of participating artists who delves into the new
themes of personal memory or collective pains.

His Father and Son visualizes this intimate, filial bond
through a subtle gradation of red, yellow and white trapped
inside the juxtaposed space created by the haunting, elongated
and abstracted figures of men.

Artistic progress

The dynamic exploration of techniques, according to art critic
Agus Dermawan T, underlines the significant esthetic progress
watercolor painting has achieved in the past few years.

Previously, watercolor painting techniques were rather limited
to the terms "aquarelle", "wet brush" and "dry brush", Dermawan
said in the exhibition's catalog.

"Currently, those limitations have been pulled down," he
stressed.

He cited the works of two participating artists, Min Wae Aung
of Myanmar and Lan Sze Ling of Hong Kong, as fine examples of the
exploration and exploitation of new techniques.

"His The Monk on the Morning Round shows how watercolor media
can be processed to look like a presentation using the pastel
dusel and oil paint impasto," he said.

Meanwhile, the smoothness and nearly photographic reality of
Lam Sze Ling's Nocturnal Sightseeing will keep gallery-goers
guessing as to whether it is truly a watercolor painting.

These newly found techniques and the ongoing exploration of
watercolor painting, Dermawan reasoned, would stimulate the
painters to take on new, challenging themes.

"Some are still remaining true to the traditional, eye-
catching and ordinary paintings. But, there are quite a few
artists who are moving on to narrative and symbolic
manifestations, utilizing the unlimited potentials of
watercolor," he added.

Vibrant Asia

Agus Dermawan T summed up the exhibition as a celebration of
watercolor painting at a regional level, stressing that it should
be used as a launching pad into the "international sky".

For Agung Rai, the founder of ARMA Museum, the exhibition is
a clear testimony to the richness and vibrancy of the Asian
esthetic landscape.

"Asia is a huge place endowed with a diverse cultural heritage
and distinct creative energies. The works displayed in this
exhibition, to some extent, have managed to capture the cultural
dynamic of this region," he said.