John Schlechter presents art full of mystique and honesty

Yusuf Susilo Hartono, Contributor, Surabaya

Candik Ayu Cultural House in Surabaya is now hosting a solo exhibition of the works of John Schlechter, 79. His paintings are wrapped in a unique and mysterious air, which comes from his particular choice of style and medium.

Schlechter paints with an approach called "automatism", a way of expression negating the principles of design and logic. In its defiance of logic, automatism is part of surrealism. In automatism, the subconscious urge, pure inspiration plus free feelings make up the core of creative work.

Adopting automatism, Schlechter has taken the road already traversed by some Western artists like Joan Miro and Andrea Masson, who have enjoyed fame thanks to their choice of automatism. In their paintings, lines are employed as the main element.

The subconscious urge and genuine inspiration are poured forth onto the drawing paper, whose surface is coarse on one side and smooth on the other, with sizes ranging from small to medium. He also uses various things to draw with, from pencils, pens, Chinese ink, watercolors to oil paints.

The ongoing exhibition displays some 100 of Schlechter's works. Untitled, most of the works display female figures. Different positions are featured: the figure of a woman with only her face visible, the figure of a naked woman, alone or with other naked women, both in a lying position or in merriment, with his models ranging from his own wife to the mythical Queen of the South Sea.

Schlechter has artistically manipulated the painting of a naked woman on a thin and easily torn rice wrapping paper. In some cases, he has relied on the smearing made by several lines to form something like the shape of a head, an arm, a breast, a waist or a hip, then reinforced it with a thin stroke of paint to fill the parts of the body and the background.

In another painting, in which he portrays a lying naked woman, the woman's contours are made up of soft, flexible and intertwined lines with details being given to the eyes and the lips. Blue and black smears follow the position of the object after its muscles and flesh have been put in place.

Schlechter has also made a painting of a naked woman sitting with her right hand akimbo. In this work, Schlechter uses his pencil to make lines without distinguishing their thickness to frame the hands, part of the waist up to the right hip, the breasts and part of the face. For the body, shades of black and soft green are applied to create light and volume.

As for the woman that Schlechter features on paper, it does not rely on the lines but the unintentional cracks on the black area. The cracks of white color in the painting of the Queen of the South Sea gives an aura of mystery.

Schlechter is also interested in painting objects ranging from sceneries to self-portraits to trees. Plain and simple, his objects range from what still exists in reality to those that have been transformed through abstraction. In other words, these objects are only media for Schlechter to present his objects on paper.

Schlechter has become productive in painting thanks to his adoption of automation. That he is quite prolific is evident from 200 works that he is displaying on a table, in addition to the 100 that are hung on the walls. Schlechter, who is now at an advanced age, cannot part with his walking stick, but has impressed all that have seen his works as an outstanding painter.

Schlechter was born in 1922 in Tanjung Pandan, Belitung (now part of Bangka Belitung province). After the Second World War, he traveled to Thailand, Burma and Egypt. Then he joined a teacher training school in Holland.

During the 1950s he returned to Indonesia and taught at a teacher training school in Jakarta. Afterward, he returned to Holland and held his first exhibition there. Between 1962 and 1992 he taught at Iowa, in the U.S. and quite frequently held painting exhibitions. In 1992, he returned to Indonesia, moving from Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung, Bali and Surabaya. Currently, he resides in Prigen, a small town in East Java.

Schlechter's first solo exhibition was in 1959 and the current exhibition is his 18th, the first of its kind in Indonesia. It is Budi Wirawan, the owner of Candik Ayu Cultural House, that has sponsored him this time.

It is hoped that there will be future exhibitions like this. Such exhibitions enliven Indonesian art.

The works that he has created reflect his honesty and the peace he has made with himself. As a rational intellectual with a Western education, Schlechter must always be in two minds because deep inside he is an Indonesian imbued with Oriental customs, superstition and mysticism.

The exhibition will run through to April 20, 2002 at Candik Ayu Cultural House, Jl. Rinjani 78, Surabaya, Tel. (031) 5463809.