Nashar -- Art, life and nature

Nashar oleh Nashar (Nashar by Nashar); Nashar; Yayasan Bentang Budaya,; Yogyakarta, 2002 viii + 301 pp

This book is a memoir of the late painter Nashar and a collection of his contemplations about life and art, known as his nocturnal letters.

Nashar, in his life as an artist, was comparable to the fiery and rebellious poet Chairil Anwar, the pioneer of modern Indonesian poetry.

His memoir shows that he had a very strict father and, therefore, had the potential for rebellion. Later, when he was a painter, he rebelled against the norms in painting by putting forward his principles of non-technique, non-concept and non- esthetics. This sounds a strange principle for an artist, especially because technique and esthetics seem to be intertwined, in any art genre.

Reading through his memoir shows how Nashar found it very difficult to enter the realm of painting. By fluke, he joined a painting course led by S. Sudjojono, now considered the father of modern Indonesian art.

But Sudjojono always returned Nashar's works, saying that he had no talent but that he could try again. This happened again and again, until one day Nashar realized why Sudjonono said he had no talent but still asked him to take part in his painting class: Sudjojono wanted Nashar to practice and practice and practice to make himself a painter.

From Sudjojono, Nashar learned to paint an object with full attention paid to details. His acquaintance with another great artist, Affandi, led him to another principle in painting: do not attend too much to the details. Just give the impression.

So Nashar, who had two great masters as his teachers, finally developed his own principle, as referred to earlier. While living in Bali, Nashar painted nature and was surprised to find that nature made for a good composition. Nature shows its balance, and it struck him then that the same was true in painting. Regard your painting as nature, with everything in balance.

This thought radically changed Nashar's principle in art; he did not believe in technique in the way it was academically defined. He believed in nature. As you deal with real nature and real life, he maintained, your technique is the result of your seriousness in capturing the shadow of life. He believed that nature was perfectly in balance. If you deal with real nature with a particular concept, then the result of your work won't be satisfactory because of your own intervention. But if you forget concepts and techniques, you will be able to approach nature as it is. Nature develops by itself without pre-arranged concepts and techniques.

Nature, he writes, is a perfect composition. So, you must treat your canvas as nature and approach your painting the way you approach nature. If you put yourself in this position, so Nashar believed, you will some day find yourself in a position in which techniques, concepts or even esthetics become no longer necessary. At this point, you can draw or paint something on anything, using any medium. Nashar practiced this himself in his life. He, for example, made charcoal sketches on discarded pieces of paper.

Obviously, Nashar would like people to liberate their minds when facing paintings or when working on a canvas. With these inhibitions being reduced to the minimum, people can freely enjoy or create paintings, free from the shackles of any theoretical knowledge.

Another interesting part of this memoir is his description of the struggle between the free-minded artists, like him, and their leftist counterparts in the early 1960s. As he was an open-minded artist, he did not mind joining a discussion with important figures from the leftist Institute of People's Culture (Lekra) or the leftist-cum-nationalist National Cultural Institute (LKN).

He would not mind engaging himself in long debates with the artists from these organizations because he believed such debates would serve as a means to put his own beliefs to the test. Unfortunately, only a few shared his ideas.

Nashar was later involved in the declaration of the Cultural Manifesto, along with like-minded free artists and writers across the country. It is interesting, at this juncture, to note that Nashar, who, in his artistic creed, did away with concepts, was eventually also drawn into the wrangling between the leftist and the free-minded artists.

While his memoir describes to us episodes of his life, the collection of 16 nocturnal letters contain his contemplations and reflections upon life and art. It is here that the philosophical Nashar manifests himself through his train of thought. Reading these letters further rouses our curiosity about what life is and how it is related with art. -- Lie Hua