Late Sadali's final paintings on display

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): When Achmad Sadali passed away in 1987, a solo exhibition of his work was still on display at the Erasmus Huis, Jakarta. Perhaps due to space constrictions, there were about 60 paintings which were not exhibited, and remained at the painter's house-studio.

These are being displayed for the first time at Edwin's Gallery until Oct. 26, in a commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the death of the artist.

Curator Jim Supangkat explained that the works show the master's final stage of artistic development, which was on-going for approximately 17 years, from around 1970 to 1987. Sadali was born in Garut in 1924.

In 1947, Dutch painters Simon Admiraal and Ries Mulder established an educational institution for art teachers. A year later, Sadali entered the school as one of its first students. Upon graduation in 1953 he was asked to become a lecturer at the school, which later became the Department of Fine Arts of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

Influenced by Mulder, his early works showed trends of synthetic cubism.

In 1956-1957, he studied fine arts at the State University of Iowa, Iowa City. Later he studied at the Art Teachers College, Columbia University, and at the Art Students League, both in New York City.

During this time abstract expressionism was fostering in the United States, which most likely influenced Sadali's artistic development.

Back home in the early 1960s, Sadali's cubistic style shifted to an abstraction more devoid of form.

He was among the few Indonesian artists who adopted and then adapted Modernist principles.

Engaged

The modern, Sadali wrote, "denotes not solely the notion to distinguish the present from the past". It was "rather the fact of being engaged in the current movement of human endeavors to understand the self, the environment, and the entire universe".

Modern art, he said, was "an ideological concept. It rejects past modes and aggressively asserts its claim to be the only art truly reflecting our age."

He continued, "Modern art is a type of creation exercised by contemporary artists who make use of every facility existing in today's space and time. It involves the effort to find a new ground of reality which is a quandary from which modern men can find no escape."

At that time realism was the predominant discourse in Indonesian art. Therefore, contradictions between the modern and the traditional became the main issue of the debates on Indonesian art.

Sadali indicated he preferred looking forward rather than back. He criticized the painter Kusnadi's opinion on the importance of Indonesian identity in Indonesian art.

In an unfinished draft of an article he wrote, "The identity of the nation derived from traditional arts can possibly be read only if there is a feature that shows a basic aesthetic concept, as in classical Chinese painting."

Rather, he said, "It is more important for Indonesian artists to feel the space and time that today connects Indonesia's progress in science and technology with the future."

The works shows the master's relentless exploration in form, material, and meaning through his art.

The works range from collages of cushion-like forms or folded fabric arranged in an aesthetic composition, slabs of gold symbolizing balance, the gunungan (cosmic mountain) for which he is most famous, and spiritual gateways which recur in his work towards the latter part of his life.

Gunungan Pertama (First Cosmic Mountain, 1969) is perhaps indeed the artist's very first painting of the cosmic mountain. Done in slightly different saturations of luminous blues, and embellished with slight accents of other colors, the painting presents a truly illuminating impression. A few other forms of the gunungan form are also presented.

Supangkat pointed out that Sadali commonly used the geometry based on the dimensions of the medium he used as the starting point of his paintings.

This can clearly be seen in his Gunungan Hitam Putih (Black and White Cosmic Mountain), a telling sketch of the way the artist worked.

"Sadali used the image of the gunungan as a metaphor for attainment," said Supangkat.

"This can also be seen in the upper part of the sketch," he said. On the zenith of the image above the cosmic mountain, an element which is a continuation of the mountain's orientation completes the picture, symbolizing attainment.

Artist Satyagraha, who studied with Sadali at ITB, said there were two aspects of Sadali's art works which he found interesting.

Primordial

"He often starts out with a strict academic approach in his formal composition, but then he brings into his works artistic elements which seem very primordial and spontaneous, which occur through processes," he said.

Satyagraha finds Sadali's work is most successful when the spontaneity is most evident.

Composition with Orange Vertical Line (1974), a work using acrylics on paper, shows such spontaneity. The painting seems to use the basic composition of gunungan, but its form is created by burning the middle of the paper, which is then built up with layers of color and materials.

There seems to have been no attempt to make the painting beautiful, yet the final image turned out to be a strong, albeit small, composition.

Supangkat says there are three aspects which Sadali found important in his art: mind, feeling and faith.

Sadali once asserted that "the intensity of faith to some extent depends upon the mind and feelings."

Sadali's works are often called abstract religious by certain academics, and this is perhaps the result of his use of Islamic calligraphy in his art, some of which also appear in the exhibition.

However, Supangkat said, "Sadali is not trying to convey a kind of transcendental message." Rather, he saw Sadali's art works as an inquisitive search for an essence.

Sadali's use of Arabic script in his art, is not as an aesthetic element, but rather as an element of meaning. Unlike other artists who often use Arabic script, Sadali does not stylize the calligraphy.

Rather, he is more interested in the essential meaning of the script itself.

Sadali's paintings becomes stages for spiritual dramas in the artist's attempt to achieve an inner transcendence. His struggle for attainment becomes his creative process in his art.

The artist also turned his "golden bars" towards the periphery, creating compositions which focused toward the very center of his media.

Sometimes, they frame a central element, as in Batang-batang Melingkar (Circling Poles) and Ayat-ayat (Verses, 1987). Other times, they become gateways.

Supangkat even sees that some of Sadali's works, such as the Komposisi Latar Biru dan Emas (Composition with blue and gold background, 1986) give an impression of a frightening black hole.

The image of the gateway seemed to be an important element in Sadali's works created just before his death in 1987 -- note the series of retouched prints of this gateway entitled Batang-batang Melingkar.

Eight of the 10 prints are numbered, and Supangkat has pointed out the difference in the prints, particularly between numbers 3/8 and 5/8. Unlike common graphic art, it seems clear that this work was intended to be presented as an integral series.

The series seems to convey a certain message regarding the artist's perception about faith, and reading the series in its appropriate order might prove to be rewarding.