No Lekra members' works displayed

JAKARTA (JP): The Islamic Contemporary Arts exhibition, opened by President Soeharto yesterday, displays no single works by members of the defunct Lekra (Lembaga Kesenian Rakyat).

The exhibition coordinator, Arsono, told Antara Saturday that the organizing committee had been very selective. "Items displayed are those with high Islamic values," he said.

He said that the curator council, set up to select the works to be displayed, consisted of experts with high integrity, such as AD Pirous, Quraish Shihab, Azumardi Azra and Mammannor.

"They are all reputable people," he said.

Arsono was responding to an allegation made by local artist Hardi, who said that former members of Lekra got priority in displaying their works in an exhibition at Taman Mini.

Lekra was an artist organization under the auspice of the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

"The allegation sounds very strange. How could he (Hardi) allege that we give priority to works by former Lekra members, while he didn't know whose works would be displayed," Arsono said. He added that 200 artisans took part in the exhibition. (sur)