Late Sadali's final paintings on display

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.