Indonesian art, hot items at auctions

By Boudewijn Brands

AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands (JP): A concentration of offers attract more buyers. That is a marketing strategy. So usually, auction houses, targeting wealthy buyers in Singapore, plan their sales at the same time.

The art market in this region seems to be on the move, and again, Glerum seems to take the initiative. This is so because: firstly, Indonesia is the largest country in the area and there is a large market for Indonesia related art; secondly, the Netherlands is the largest European source and a market for Indonesian Mooi-Indie art, while at the same time having a lively contemporary art scene; thirdly, Singapore has an art appreciating population and is the most efficient and cost effective place to do business; forthly, income distribution in developing countries is very unequal, thus making them good markets for expensive articles; and lastly, a collector usually starts buying small and cheap items before going on to more expensive ones.

So when Jan-Pieter Glerum started to create a market for Indonesia-related art, he started in the Netherlands and was also the first to move to Singapore, targeting rich buyers in the area, especially Indonesians. In 1996, contemporary Indonesian art was included for the first time. Indonesia, corrupt and bureaucratic, was not an ideal place for quality auctions. Sotheby's and Christie's are now also regularly auctioning in Singapore but that time Glerum has made an association with a local organization in Jakarta.

So what has been on offer recently? On May 21, 2000, Glerum held a unique auction in Amsterdam. Glerum was allowed to sell works from Maria Hofker-Rueter's (she passed away last December) collection that she did not bestow to the Teyler Museum in Haarlem as he had a close personal relationship with her.

This auction obviously had a large Indonesian content as a lot of the work, especially Willem Hofker's, was done in Indonesia (see also the article on Maria Hofker in The Jakarta Post in 1998).

On Sept. 6, 2000, Glerum had another two-dimensional art auction. There were 673 lots. 92 out of the 121 in the Indonesian section, or about 80 percent, were sold. It is at auctions like these that starters can buy good art at reasonable prices: prints of established Cobra artists, such as Eugene Brands or Corneille, go for prices half of what is asked for in galleries.

There are even items sold for Dfl 10 (about Rp 33,000). In this auction, the most expensive work was Indonesia-related: a painting by Frida Holleman that went for Dfl 5,200 (excluding auction costs), about four times its estimated value (Duta Fine Arts Foundation has a booklet about this artist).

Oct. 1, 2000, both Christie's and Sotheby's had auctions in Singapore. Christie's in the morning at 10.30 and Sotheby's in the afternoon. The target here was obviously the collector with a purse surpassing the one owned by working people.

Christie's divided their lots into five chapters. The first 36 consisting of Indo-European pictures and the last 45 lots on Indonesian picture. The other 63 works originated from Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. The catalogue is, as usual, beautiful and had excellent write-ups on the background of some of the paintings such as Le Mayeur's on which Drs. Jop Ubbens, who was recently promoted to general manager of Christie's in Amsterdam, is a specialist. The highest price bided for in this auction (including costs) was S$713,750, for a painting of women working in the rice fields by Fabian de la Rosa from the Philippines.

The six Le Mayeurs fetched a combined total of S$1,673,875. Christie's is conservative toward contemporary art. It will only sell works of artists who have an auction history or that who have already established names. It is also interesting to note that Christie's has started to auction, including contemporary art, in Thailand.

Sotheby's has divided their 163 lots into six chapters, four of them on Indonesia; 25 on Indo-European paintings, six on Bali, 56 on modern and contemporary works and 16 on new contemporary paintings. Top prices bided for here were S$889,550 for a Walter Spies and S$127,750 (including costs) for a Raden Saleh.

In the contemporary category, Sotheby's is a bit more adventurous, offering works of relatively unknown Faizin (born 1973) and Bilaningsih (born 1960). Excellent prices were obtained here for works by Heri Dono (S$12,000), Sigit Santoso (S$4,800) and for a strong "ugly" (nondecorative) painting called Figures (using integers) by active artist Entang Wiharso (born 1967).

A shady side of art came up in Sotheby's auction. Indonesian art specialist Amir Sidarta pointed out that lot 53, a painting by S. Sudjojono, was stolen. The next day, Sept. 22, an e-mail was sent out on this matter saying that of the 53 paintings of this artist seen in 17 catalogues since 1996, 17 were fakes and six stolen.

The fakes are sometimes so well-made that prospective buyers are cautioned against unqualified statements on the authorship or date of execution of the paintings.

This warning notice was seen at the auction that was taken place on Oct. 22, 2000 in Jakarta. This was the 2nd Pictures of Indonesia auction and was completely devoted to Indonesian art.

The catalogue does not give any names of associated experts in Larasati (the organizer) and the reason may exactly be the above. However, the auction was done in association with Glerum Southeast Asia and offers 227 works. 37 or about 16 percent of these are Hofkers of which the authenticity is at least guaranteed. They are at all price levels. The showstopper of this auction would no doubt be Hofker's Portrait of the Seated Ni Noneh (lot 64). There would also be a beautiful and rare Affandi, actually featuring snow (lot 179).

Anyone seriously interested in Indonesian art should get this catalogue and read the introduction. Claire Holt's book on "Art in Indonesia" is currently available in Indonesian, but without color illustrations. This catalogue gives a good illustration of Indonesia's art history.

History is also being made here; a young artist's work included in this auction is S. Teddy D.'s Bunga Jeruk, named after his artist friend. Will such a work be picked up by an Indonesian or an expatriate?

Teddy's works are currently being exhibited in a Jakarta gallery and some of his works can even be rented in the Netherlands. Such information cannot be found in the short biographies of each artist represented, but with 13 pages of such biographies, the catalogue is up to date on contemporary art.

*The writer is an art collector.