Group of Nine opened way for women artists

Group of Nine opened way for women artists

By Mehru Jaffer

JAKARTA (JP): Many a bored housewife has taken up painting to
kill time, but few have had such a passion for art as Ratmini
Soedjatmoko.

More than 30 years ago she began taking painting lessons
simply to avoid meaningless coffee mornings and mindless chatter
in Washington, where her husband was posted at the Indonesian
Embassy.

The 75-year-old Ratmini looks back on those lessons as a
turning point in her life. She was amazed at her own creativity
and delighted by the fact that she no longer had the time to
complain about being bored.

Back in Jakarta she touched base with her old friend Wiranti
Tedjasukmana and the two discovered that one of the passions they
shared was painting.

What started out as two women soon grew to nine, meeting
regularly to paint and to discuss art. In 1973, they called
themselves Group Sembilan (Group of Nine). Those were the days
when art galleries did not exist in Jakarta and the Jakarta
School of Art at Taman Ismail Marzuki had just been established.
The first exhibition of Group Sembilan, therefore, was held at
the home of a bachelor who was very pleased to find himself
suddenly surrounded by women.

He looked on indulgently as the art enthusiasts turned his
home upside down and hammered nails in his walls to hang their
work. By the time the exhibition was over, the women had sold 50
percent of their pieces. Since this first exhibition, the group
has seen its roster expand to more than nine women and dwindle to
as few as two, as artists come and go.

Over the years, such people as Dolorosa Sinaga, Iriantine
Karnaya and Astari Rasjid have painted with the group. The one
constant was that the group was always exclusively composed of
women.

This may be changing though, with four men included in the
group's latest exhibition being held in the lobby of The Regent
Hotel in Jakarta. The exhibition will included works by 16
artists, including paintings, sculptures, ceramic pieces by F.
Widayanto and textiles by Biranul Anas.

Among the works on display, the stunning black-and-white
portraits by Arnold Sobers stand out. Talking to The Jakarta
Post, Sobers said that, both as a guest in this country and as an
artist, he felt nothing but pride at being asked to participate
in the exhibition.

He said he considers it a privilege to have met the many local
artists involved in the group, and looks forward to enriching
himself further by accepting invitations to the studios and
workshops of some of these artists.

While drawing a face, Sobers concentrates on the emotions of
his subject. And by going into the detail of the bone structure,
he also attempts to capture the cultural baggage of his subjects.

One of Sobers' works on display is Men Who Dream, which is
mesmerizing for the uncertainty captured in the male model's
eyes, along with the accompanying expression of hope.

Meanwhile, Ratmini said she was on the verge of experimenting
with abstraction when she found herself in Tokyo. There her
teachers inspired her to return to realism and she found herself
reinterpreting the landscapes of Borobodur and the Prambanan
temples of Central Java.

However, two recent paintings of Glodok and a North Jakarta
market are colorful reminders of the Impressionistic and Cubist
masters of Europe.

Wiranti, though, said she was happy to have graduated to the
abstract realm of painting. "It makes me feel free. It is a very
liberating exercise," said the housewife and Dutch language
teacher, who started her painting career with a series of figures
mostly inspired by dancers.

She says that as her life metamorphosed from wife to mother to
grandmother, she felt more comfortable expressing her experiences
in the abstract. She no longer feels the need to concentrate on
details; instead her canvases are splashes of colors exuding
happiness.

She also has become adept at depicting the bittersweet moments
of her life. To express her feelings at parting from her family
after a vacation, she drew a heart that was only half painted.
And a view of the harbor from the high-rise apartment of one of
her children in Hong Kong is a sea of sights and sounds, soaked
in her memory and put on paper in a riot of colors.

Both Ratmini and Wiranti are happy that Jakarta has turned
into a bustling marketplace exploding with a wide variety of
artistic activities. It is, of course, more difficult to sell
paintings today, but it is good that there is art available here
for every possible taste and customer.

The exhibition at the Regent Hotel is open daily to the public
from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. until Sept. 13.