Glass painter hopes gloomy will pass quickly

Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post, Muntilan, Central Java

The terrorist attacks in New York last September have affected tourism in the small town of Muntilan, where the Borobudur temple lies. The number of foreign tourists visiting the temple and its surroundings has fallen drastically.

Apparently, the attacks have also affected local glass painter Maryono, whose customers are mostly foreigners.

He compared the current situation with three years ago, when riots broke out in Jakarta and various parts of the country, causing a scarcity of foreign tourists.

Previously, Maryono had always been able to sell two glass paintings a day thanks to the foreign tourists flocking to Borobudur Temple. But now he only produces between two and three a week, as no tourists visit his house anymore.

Declining to mention the financial losses he has suffered due to the current situation, Maryono recalled a time when only rich villagers around Magelang, Temanggung, Wonosobo, Parakan, Boyolali and Yogyakarta came to his house in the 1960s to buy his works.

At that time, glass paintings indicated the social status of their owners.

"I and my elder brother (the late Sastro Gambar) failed to meet the market demands," he said, adding that buyers' favorites in those years were mainly pictures of punokawan (servants of royalty in Javanese puppet dramas), Demak grand mosque, Arabic calligraphy and furniture decorations with foliage motifs.

Maryono often uses Petruk, one of the four punokawan, to represent various human characters or symbols in his paintings.

In his painting Ojo Dumeh (Don't be Arrogant), Petruk is in a suit walking with his pretty wife with his luxurious house in the background, inscribed with the letters PT (an abbreviation for Petruk).

"This picture describes how the poor can become rich someday and the haves can become poor, so the rich should not display an arrogant attitude toward the poor," said Maryono.

In his legendary painting entitled Melik Nggendhong Lali (Greed for Wealth Makes People Unaware), Petruk represents a king who forgets everything. The king is sitting on a chair with a pretty woman on his lap and a bottle of liquor on a table nearby, while one of his hands holds a cigar. "People are still interested in this painting, which describes the behavior of today's figures."

Maryono began painting on glass in 1953 when he was still in the fifth grade. At that time he devoted his attention to glass paintings until his works enjoyed a boom in the 1960s. But after the 1960s he produced glass paintings only in a cursory manner.

In 1980 he even had to do his paintings on transparent plastic plates using cheap paints because he couldn't afford to buy glass. The price of these paintings was less than Rp 1,000 a piece at that time.

The sale of glass paintings began to experience a revival in 1984, when cultural expert Umar Kayam bought one of Maryono's glass paintings entitled Melik Nggendhong Lali at a price of Rp 3,500.

"I have since produced glass paintings again and in 1992 I was invited to display my works at Bentara Budaya Jakarta, together with Kartadihardjo and Sulasno, both painters from Yogyakarta.

"During the display all my paintings were bought by Jakartans at high prices, even reaching Rp 500,000 per piece," he said while showing the clippings from Kompas daily and Tempo magazine, which reported on his exhibition.

Since then, Maryono has focused more attention on the production of glass paintings, which have attracted many local and foreign buyers to his house said Sutanto, the owner of Mendut Studio.

"Whatever he paints sells well."

Maryono is now the only glass painter in Muntilan following the death of his brother several years ago.

Now with the decreasing number of foreign tourists visiting his gallery, he still produces glass paintings to fulfill local collectors' orders.

"Only one or two buyers visit my gallery every week."

Today, he can finish two glass paintings measuring 40 x 50 centimeter a day. The paintings sell for at least Rp 150,000 each. The price can soar to Rp 500,000 each for foreign buyers.

"I hope the situation in the country will be back to normal soon and tourist arrivals will increase again," he said.