Exhibition shows lighter side of legendary painter Sudjojono

By Chandra Johan

JAKARTA (JP): The history of modern Indonesian painting has always placed the name Sindudarsono Sudjojono in its forefront.

Constantly portrayed in the context of significant milestones such as his revolt against the tradition of the Mooi Indie (Beautiful Indies) esthetics and the bourgeois social system at that time, Sudjojono's name is a legend to many.

This has unwittingly led many people to forget Sudjojono's humanity. The trivial and simple things in his life have been less featured when he is remembered.

These lesser known qualities of Sudjojono (1913 - 1986) were revealed in an exhibit of 40 of his works at the Pelita Harapan University building in Lippo Karawaci, Tangerang, from March 25 to April 7.

The exhibit was put on in cooperation with the S. Sudjojono Museum, where the late painter's wife, Rose Pandanwangi, is curator.

The curator of the Pelita Harapan University Museum, Amir Sidharta, explains that the exhibit aimed "to present this painter in a daily context as a common person ... he had a family, a religion and a social environment."

In the exhibition named Sudjojono, the Optimist, Sidharta and Pandanwangi divided Sudjojono's works into three categories: those with a social-political theme, those conveying self- expression and the rest expressing a family and religious theme.

A simple and humane Sudjojono was reflected through such works like bouquets, Moored boats in Tanjung Priok and Kebun di Pacet (A garden in Pacet, West Java), a far cry from his paintings associated with his revolutionary image.

The categorization in themes were not a strict division in the display for landscape themes and still life works were also shown.

Sudjojono used to say painters who only worked on beautiful scenes -- those grouped in the Mooi Indies school -- were distanced from other features that they should have noted in their environment.

A painter, in his view, must paint anything around him. "A painter doesn't only paint shacks and mountains, but also sugar factories, thin farmers, cars of the rich and a young man's trousers. This is our condition, this is our reality."

In Kepala Gombal (Head of old pieces of cloth), Sudjojono lashes out angrily, it seems, at the bureaucracy hampering the accessibility of electricity by controlling the state-owned electricity company, PLN.

A fat figure is depicted with a head made of old cloths while the real head is in the pocket of his coat. One of his hands holds a bulb, and electric cable poles stand to his left and right.

Sudjojono's religious themes include the powerful Beri Makan Sehari-hari (Give us our daily food). This painting shows Sudjojono's family praying before meals, although his children seem to have their own thoughts.

Family themes appear in Anak Gadisku (My Daughter), l976, and Mama Mengasoh (Mama resting), l959.

Being a model for a father painter does not always look fun: Anak Gadisku depicts sullen faces and their father does not attempt to make them sweet.

Among Sudjojono's self-portraits, Self-portrait was his last. A pastel, this painting represents Sudjojono with his pipe. What is interesting is the depiction of a bouquet of flowers around the portrait, as if the painter was preparing for his death.

With another self-portrait, Optimist, the painter made the following note, a practice he often did for his works: "Because I know that in this world there is no heaven, there is only hell, I try to transform this hell into heaven. Because I am a painter, I always make something that makes me happy and glad and always chant in my heart..."

Notes were important to the painter to acknowledge his feelings; to him a painting remained a vision of the soul.

Unfortunately, a catalog to the exhibit was not available through which the wider public could be exposed to a large part of Sudjojono's last works.