Good going in local art scene despite end to boom

Good going in local art scene despite end to boom

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): At the end of this year, the economic crisis
should have put paid to the decade-long Indonesian art boom.

Sales of Indonesian art at auctions in Singapore, Amsterdam
and at home indicated the market had indeed reached saturation
point. However most of the year was promising.

Indonesian artworks featured in many important international
exhibitions held in Japan, Italy, Cuba, Denmark and Malaysia.

Several Indonesian art shows were held in Japan, a tradition
from 1978 and the "Asian Art Show" at the Fukuoka Art Museum.

The Birth of Southeast Asian Art had important early works of
Affandi, Sudjojono, Hendra, Agus Djaja and Srihadi Soedarsono's
sketches depicting scenes during the war of independence.

Recently renewed interest in Asian art was also apparent in
Australia and the United States.

Nindityo Adipurnomo and Agus Suwage were among five
progressive Indonesian artists who participated in the Sixth
Biennial of Havana from May to June.

International exhibitions such as Asia-Pacific Triennial in
1993 and 1996 in Brisbane owe much to curators in Japan,
Southeast Asia and Australia who promoted the new "force" of the
Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Islam

In Italy, Hendrawan Riyanto, Anusapati and Setiawan Sabana
exhibited in Modernities and Memories: Recent Works from the
Islamic World, part of the La Biennale di Venezia XLVII.

This exhibition followed efforts of Moslem academics,
including intellectual Hassan Uddin-Khan and a curator of a
Jordanian museum, who believed Islamic art was underrepresented.

They searched for artists whose works reflected strong roots
in Moslem tradition.

In September, Indonesia won its first Philip Morris ASEAN Art
Awards, when the work of Yogyakarta artist Yuswantoro Adi
received the Grand Prize.

His Masterpieces of Indonesia, which shows the country's
quintessential icons, all formed from Indonesian bills, was
timely.

Art critic Agus Dermawan T. charged this year's selection was
better than previous choices of a jury, headed by critic Jim
Supangkat, which he said leaned to chaotic, rebellious and
gruesome images, based on absurd and "pseudo-academic" criteria.

His view led to a full-fledged debate. Yet numerous
exhibitions by emerging artists did reflect a trend toward the
absurd and an anti-aesthetic in contemporary Indonesian art, with
politics and social change as the most popular themes.

Unlike theater, censorship is not a common issue.

One exceptions to the political theme was Di Stasiun (At the
station), a joint exhibition by young artists, mostly alumni of
the Jakarta Institute for the Arts. It was held at the Gambir
railway station, Central Jakarta, in November.

Station officials asked that one work, which listed the names
of victims of railway accidents, be removed from the exhibition.

In April, more than 20 artists participated in Slot in the Box
in Yogyakarta. Artworks on the theme of May's general election
were provocative, but the show proceeded without incident.

Ceramic

It was an auspicious year for artists working in ceramics,
although exhibitions remained limited.

TerraIndonesia 1997 featured the works of nine leading
ceramists in December.

It presented the diversity of Indonesian ceramic art, from the
crude to the refined, from expressive abstract works to social
realist commentary.

Sculpture received less attention. Among the few notable
events was a competition sponsored by the Ciputra Group.

Recipients of the Anugerah Adirupa CitraRaya 1997 awards were
Haryadi Suroso and Budi L. Tobing, Yani Maryani and Ketut Winata.
Their works will be models for larger-scale ones at a real estate
project in Tangerang.

Painting exhibition From Mooi Indie to Persagi reflected the
early style of Dutch artists in depicting the "natural beauty" of
their kingdom's colony.

Persagi was the first association of Indonesian painters. The
exhibition of the collection of the Pelita Harapan University
museum runs to Jan. 26, and coincides with this year's 60th
anniversary of Persagi's founding.

Commemorate exhibitions were held for two late Indonesian
artists, Mochtar Apin, who died in 1993, and Achmad Sadali.

Many of Sadali's works were never shown publicly before his
death in 1987.

Two fine art galleries opened this year. Works by Chagall and
Picasso were in the inaugural exhibition of Darga Gallery in
Sanur, Bali.

A heated debate ensued regarding galleries, triggered by an
article by Supangkat in the catalog for the inaugural exhibition
at Galeripadi in Bandung.

Supangkat's article distinguished "alternative" galleries,
such as Galeripadi, from "conventional" ones, and he inferred the
latter was more likely to be involved in shady art dealings.

Critic Dermawan said Supangkat was biased.

Their debate was closely linked to another issue raised in
August -- the role of the art critic and of curators.

In the past, Supangkat had questioned Dermawan's position as
an art critic and his links with art dealers. In turn, Dermawan
focused on Supangkat's bias as a curator, even accusing him of
nepotism as a work by Alce Supangkat, Jim's wife, was included in
one of his exhibitions.

Puritan

Dermawan is a widely known popular writer about the
development of art, and credited with an important role in
developing the Indonesian art market.

Supangkat is an academic die-hard focused on the promotion of
contemporary Indonesian art.

He refuses to acknowledge Dermawan's role as a critic. Other
writers have tended to disagree with Supangkat's puritanical
views, including that art critics should not be involved at all
in art dealing, although there is no consensus on what "dealing"
covers.

Although Supangkat seems to have been losing the battle in the
mass media this year, the Dutch government awarded him the 1997
Prince Claus award, along with Sardono W. Kusumo and others, this
month.

The debates showed the dearth of art critics amid the boom had
led to an overlapping of roles of critic, curator and art
consultant among a few individuals.

There has yet to be a definition and limit to the role of
each.

But these few experts also need to realize the role of the
public, and that an increasing number of art lovers is able to
discern whether art criticism is perhaps colored by vested
interest.

Amid the debates, the art world lost two senior figures.
Critic Kusnadi passed away at his home in South Jakarta on 21
April from complications of typhoid and other illness. Veteran
painter Haryadi, best known for Malioboro Conversations in the
Sukarno collection, died in Yogyakarta in June at age 78.
Books

Several notable books on Indonesian art came out this year.

Supangkat's Indonesian Modern Art and Beyond, published by The
Indonesian Fine Arts Foundation, received a tremendous response
from the local art community.

Times Editions brought out Masterpieces of Contemporary
Indonesian Painters by Esmeralda and Marc Bollansee.

A volume of Dede Eri Supria's paintings, Into the Labyrinth,
was published by the Lontar Foundation in conjunction with the
Jakarta Stock Exchange's fifth anniversary.

A book on the painter Widayat, written by Helena Spanjaard, is
due this month, perhaps along with the exhibition of his works.

The Jakarta Museums and Restoration Bureau has commissioned
Dermawan to publish a book commemorating 60 years of Indonesian
painting, due out sometime next year.

Despite the increase in publication of books and research on
Indonesian art, as well as the improvement of art museums with
growing private support, scholarship is still limited.

Scarcity of expertise about art in the realization of the art
boom contributed to a soaring number of art crimes (see box).

On reflection, the slowing down of overly fast development may
prove to be a blessing in disguise.

With the weakening art market, artists and exhibition
organizers will be forced to reconsider their business strategies
and set their prices at a more realistic level.

The exhibition of Jason Monet's paintings in Jakarta, for
instance, registered an unreasonable threefold increase of prices
compared to those of just a couple of years ago.

Other local artists have offered their paintings at prices
double figures of last year, overvalued even considering the
artists' development during that time period.

Even in the auction scene, artists need to be more realistic
in valuing their works (see accompanying article).

The economic crisis may offer them more time to develop
artistically, and collectors will be forced to be more selective.

For art writers, critics and curators, next year will be the
time to catch up with the lack of scholarship on Indonesian art,
and simultaneously make inroads on the art thieves and forgers.