IB Said the potrait painter to the high and mighty

By Linawati Sidarto

JAKARTA (JP): The bespectacled man sat hunched on an elevated, makeshift bench, concentrating on a faded photograph of President Soeharto, then returning his gaze to the oversized canvas in front of him.

"Capturing Soeharto's face is both easy and difficult," commented IB Said in his studio, a dark, high-ceilinged, disused fire engine garage in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.

"He is gentle but serious. Just look at his mouth: it is often between smiling and not smiling, the difference is very faint."

Said should know, as he has probably depicted Soeharto's image more than anyone else. Since 1967, he has been the only painter commissioned by the State Secretariat to paint the president's portraits every time a foreign dignitary visits the country.

Jakartans get an eyeful of Said's giant depictions of the President and world leaders, from Bill Clinton to Pope John Paul II, adorning the city's main streets.

"I must have made hundreds of paintings of Pak Harto," he said, using the colloquial address for the President.

People old enough to remember beyond the New Order era may also have seen his handiwork on portraits of the late president Soekarno, since he has painted for the state since 1961.

"Pak Karno has a very strong character, just look at his piercing eyes," noted the youthful-looking Said, who will turn 64 this August.

Said joined the State Secretariat's decorative section not long after he made his move to the capital from Yogyakarta, where he had painted and taken pointers from senior artists such as Trubus and Fajar Sidik.

"I just kind of landed there (the Secretariat), through a network of other painters," he said, adding that there were dozens of painters working for the Secretariat at the time.

The soft-spoken Said, born in Malang, East Java, of a Madurese father and Javanese mother, started painting Sukarno and foreign state visitors in 1962.

Describing himself as a self-taught impressionist, Said admitted that his job was a challenge in the early days.

"It was not easy at first to paint giant portraits from photographs. Imagine painting a face on a 4 meter by 6 meter canvas."

One of the most important skills he learned on the job was to adhere to strict, often impossibly short deadlines.

"When we get an order, the paintings have to be done by the time the visitor arrives, no ifs, ands, or buts about it," he said while puffing on a cigarette, his constant companion.

Said remembered that during the visit of Japan's Akihito and Michiko, then still prince and princess, the arrangement of the paintings at Jakarta's Merdeka Square had the princess' face turning away from Soeharto.

"It was a miscommunication between the protocol officials and myself, but it still meant that a new painting of Michiko had to be done in a few hours. I stayed up the whole night for that."

While he emphasized that his interest lay strictly in art, he felt blessed that he had indirectly followed history through his work.

"Both (Rumania's Nicolae) Ceausescu and (Pakistan's Zulfikar) Ali Bhutto happened to visit Indonesia shortly before they fell from power.

"My friends teased me at those times, asking me why the people I painted kept getting toppled."

He proudly pointed out that some dignitaries, including King Juan Carlos of Spain and President Ernesto Samper from Colombia, requested his giant portraits to take home.

When asked to compare working conditions between the Old and the New Orders, Said flashed a smile and said, "As a painter, I just do my job."

He did mention technical differences, for example that the size of the portraits were reduced to 3 X 4 meters in Soeharto's era.

"Also, as the country became more prosperous, we were able to obtain better quality paint."

Said was recommissioned to paint for the state as the lone portrait artist in 1967, after a two-year hiatus from work when the country was in turmoil.

"At that time, there was criticism that portraits of a person would vary as they were done by different painters. Finally, the authorities commissioned me to coordinate all the portraits."

Since then, Said has worked on the portraits together with two or three assistants. His wife, Karmiati, buys the calico cloth used as his canvas, and sets it up in his studio. His assistants sketch the portrait subject's outline with chalk.

"But I always paint the faces myself, as that's the most important part."

It takes skill and practice to paint the foreign dignitaries only from photographs, with limited knowledge of their backgrounds or characters.

"It becomes a purely technical task. I try to make optimum use of the photographs, constantly making sure of the likeness between the portrait and the photograph, and asking other people what they think."

He added that the task was harder when the photograph he received was too small or out of focus, "which sometimes does happen".

Said has also continued to do his own work, oil paintings using a palette knife, which give his work their thick, swirling images.

"I like observing people doing their day-to-day work, and expressing my impressions on canvas."

The living room in his simple but comfortable Kemayoran home is decorated by childhood portraits of his four children, all adults now, and five of his paintings depicting laborers at work.

In contrast with his realistic portraits, the paintings on his wall rely heavily on body contortions and colors, muted with incidental splashes of brights.

His works have been shown in many exhibitions, including three one-man shows, two here and one in Rumania.

He declined to say how much the state pays him for his portraits. What about his own paintings?

"That one there," he said pointing at an oil painting of workers carrying heavy loads down a steep mountain slope, "is around Rp 40 million."

Said diplomatically declined to comment on the question of presidential succession, reiterating that he did not get involved in politics. But did he fear his job would end when President Soeharto was no longer in power?

"I will still exist as a painter. I always believe that if one door is shut, then another will open."

He referred to the tumultuous years from 1965 to 1967.

"Of course it was a difficult period. I survived by doing a variety of things, including designing gardens.

"The only constant in life is change. We should not worry about those changes as long as we rely on ourselves, and not be at the mercy of other people."