Misty mysteries of a forgotten master

Misty mysteries of a forgotten master

Yusuf Susilo Hartono, Contributor, Jakarta

When painter Zaini died on Sept. 25, 1977 after a morning jog
near his home in Tomang, West Jakarta, he bequeathed some 200
paintings to his wife and four children.

About 70 percent of these works, painted between the 1940s and
1970s, are watercolor paintings made on small paper. The rest
were drawn on small-and-medium-sized paper. His mediums were oil
paint, china ink, pastel, pencil and marking pens.

The collection has shrunk over the years, however, as the
paintings were sold to finance the schooling of Zaini's children
and cover medical bills for his wife, who died last year.

One of the lucky buyers is Yogyakarta-based artist Butet
Kartarajasa. He came to Zaini's house and bought up dozens of
unframed Zaini paintings at "door price".

They were canny purchases, said Zaini's son Irwan Zaini, 40,
also known as Buyung.

"Butet is indeed very smart," he said.

Buyung, now working at the Communication Technology Center of
the National Education Ministry, said that he was a junior high
school student when his father died.

In the days after Zaini's death, one of the mourners who
offered condolences was Adam Malik, then vice president who
promised to set up a museum to save Zaini's paintings.

No museum was ever created, and unfortunately, none of the
Zaini family members followed it up before Adam Malik retired and
died.

For six years the family waited, holding on to the collection
in case the museum was created - but in 1983 their financial need
became too great.

Zaini's artworks were exhibited for the first time in 1983 at
Bentara Budaya, Jakarta, and some of them were sold.

In his life time, Zaini was noted as a painter, an executive
board member of the Jakarta Art Council and a lecturer at the
Jakarta Art Institute. Though many of his paintings were obscure
and misty, Zaini was a humorous father, Buyung said.

To commemorate his birthday - he was born in Pariaman, West
Sumatra, on March 17, 1924 - the family is to hold the first
public showing of 50 of Zaini's artworks.

The exhibition, at d gallerie in Jakarta, will feature
paintings worth between Rp 4 million and Rp 15 million each.

The works, which feature subjects including hamlets, valleys,
ships and coconut plantations, were drawn using a blotting style
of green, yellow and red colored mists amid impressive lines.

Less extraordinary is a black-and-white sketch of Tokyo City
(1974).

Zaini's pastel painting of San Francisco (1973) demonstrates a
very different tone to his pieces in watercolor or china ink.
There are two oil paintings entitled Child I and Child II,
portraying Buyung's siblings, Icang and Upi.

Drawings of a seated woman in pencil (1954 and 1957) portray
Buyung's own grandma with a melancholy face. There are some
sketches of models in different poses, though these are not too
special.

Zaini's most impressive but mysterious painting is called
Marie, which was made in 1949. This 53-year-old painting portrays
the bust of a Western (probably Dutch) lady. Her hair is straight
and her two eyes, which lack symmetry as his left eye is only a
cornea dot without an eyelid, have a strange look.

One wonders if Zaini's model, who would now be very old, is
still alive. Who is she? What relationship was there between this
young woman and Zaini?

Buyung says he knew nothing about the woman, who is not
mentioned in his father's diary.

Zaini, who belonged to the same genre as Rusli and Nashar,
managed to keep two female nudes secret from the family. His
children never knew of their existence until both parents had
died. In the present exhibition, these nudes are not included.

Zaini always used models -- human and animal -- when painting.
Buyung recalls how one day his father tied up a chicken and a
goat in the house because he wanted to paint them.

What is the significance of the mist that is often present in
his paintings? Buyung says his father never explained the unusual
tone, which makes his works instantly recognizable.

One of Zaini's friends, Mustika, also a painter and a fine
arts writer, once wrote: "To understand Zaini's works, we need to
know the inner wealth he expresses in the idioms of his
paintings."

In his time, Zaini was quite a prominent artist. But amid the
hullabaloo of contemporary fine arts, Zaini is rarely mentioned.

It is to be hoped these 50 paintings are not all sold and lost
to Zaini's family -- that would surely be the artist's second
death.

The exhibition is running through to April 1, 2002 at d galerie
at Jl. Barito I No. 3 South Jakarta. Telp. 7399378.