Mangu paints love for nature

Mangu paints love for nature

Yusuf Susilo Hartono, Contributor, Jakarta

Fishermen walk in rows on the coast in the morning. An elderly
woman selling fish waits for buyers at the seaside. There are
fish with hooks in their mouths. There are women engaged in sand
quarrying. Then there is the expanse of the Serangan coast.

These are the objects that can be observed in paintings by
Balinese Anak Agung Mangu Putra, a graduate of the School of Fine
Art and Design from the Indonesian Institute of Art (ISI) in
Yogyakarta, all displayed under the theme Muttering of Water Land
and Stone in a solo exhibition at Santi Gallery, Kemang, Jakarta.

This exhibition is the last for Santi Gallery as the owner has
sold it.

Compared with Mangu's other exhibitions, held at other places
and generally focusing on fish as the object, the ongoing
exhibition seems to suggest that the contemplation of his
surroundings has broadened.

In his note on the exhibition catalog, art observer Agus
Dermawan T says, "Mangu Putra's latest works no longer reflect
his (social) restlessness through an obvious visual language. He
seems to be only wishing to mutter or whisper something through
his expressive, but thematically more gentle, drawing of water,
land, human beings, fish and stone."

Mangu has also shown a change in attitude to fish as his
theme. While previously fish were presented visually as objects
full of slicing and blood to express his protest against man's
cruelty towards nature, now he draws fish as the blessing that
nature bestows on human beings.

Take a look at his painting titled Berkah II (Blessing II). It
features three fish in three panels, each measuring 145
centimeters (cm) by 70 cm, made of acrylic on canvas. Although
the hooks are still in the mouths of the fish, the animals do not
show any sign of pain in the picture. Then the eyes of the fish
show resignation and conviction that their death is beneficial to
human beings.

The peak achievement of Mangu's fish period is his
painting,Imajinasi Bawah Laut (Undersea Imagination), which
depicts the migration of a school of fish with steel scales. In
1994 this painting came first in the Philip Morris Art Awards
painting contest.

Mangu is highly skilled at painting techniques and possesses a
deep esthetic sensitivity, as manifested in his texture
exploration, shape drawing, detail exploration and the play of
the pallet knife to bring about thickness and thinness as well as
dark and bright shades. In short, his works are pleasing on the
eye.

It is not surprising, therefore, that collectors are now vying
to buy the paintings at the ongoing exhibition, which were all
produced in 2002 and come in large sizes. Before the exhibition
was opened, at least 10 collectors were vying with each another
to buy one of his paintings. The winner was finally determined in
a draw on Sunday, July 14, the opening day of the exhibition.

The outstanding strength of his textural exploration is found
in his work titled Penambang Pasir III (Sand Quarrying People
III). Stones, bluish and brownish yellow, in the foreground and
background of two women working hard to carry sand on their
heads, feel terribly cold. Yet these stones have their own
restlessness behind their robust appearance under the sunshine
and the lapse of time. In Penambang Pasir I (Sand Quarrying
People I), texture is played with the drama of three women
trickling with perspiration while cracked brownish stones hang
above their heads.

In these two paintings, the women are depicted impressively in
silhouette, just with brownish-black faces without details of
eyes, noses and mouths.

Silhouette drawing of a group is found in Pada Suatu Subuh (At
One Dawn), where he depicts a group of people walking barefoot on
an expanse of brownish sand. They cross their arms on their
chests to keep themselves warmer against the morning cold. In the
background a man wearing a broad-rimmed hat carries a basket of
fish on his head. In the spaces between their legs and heads,
there is an extent of brownish- and bluish-white, playing with
dark corners, a metaphor of the dark life the fishermen are
leading.

If we also observe his Tanam Padi (Rice Planting), which
relies on silhouette with the accent of light on the clothes and
the water in the rice field, and the play of rhythm, tone and
profundity, we come to the conclusion that these works are far
stronger than Adu Nyali (Contest of Guts), which seeks to depict
the perfection of children competing with one another by jumping
into a waterfall.

This minor flaw notwithstanding, Mangu Putra, in this solo
exhibition, wishes to whisper to all of us to (again) love
nature.

The exhibition runs from July 14 through to July 31 at Santi
Gallery, Jl. Benda No. 4, Kemang, South Jakarta, tel. 7806079