Popo Iskandar's painting career traced in exhibition

By Wawan S. Husin

"A well has been dug up" -- Tisna Sanjaya

BANDUNG (JP): Popo Iskandar's 55 productive years as a painter, represented recently in a retrospective exhibition held at the National Gallery, are evidence that Indonesia's current crop of artists have more than a shallow pool of inspiration to draw on.

Popo can be regarded as a monument for the country's young artists, alongside other masters of contemporary Indonesian painting, like Amang Rahman, Affandi, Abas Alibasyah, Basuki Abdullah, Hendra, Srihadi Sudarsono, Sudjana Kerton.

Popo has earned a seat for himself in the hall of past arts masters. His Jago (rooster) and Kucing (cat) -- two themes he has traced since 1974 -- have left their indelible marks on Indonesian painting.

Maman Noor -- the art critic and author of the book Popo Iskandar: Citra dan Karya (Popo Iskandar: Reputation and Works) -- writes about Popo's existence: "The principle characteristic of Popo is his firmness in applying his own values on the concepts of art and beauty. He has earned a place in the world of modern art, which demands individuality."

Popo was born in Garut, West Java, on Dec. 17, 1927, to a family who loved the traditional Cianjuran folk songs and local literature. He has painted since 1943.

During the revolution, a lot of his paintings, sketches and other works were ruined when they were hidden underground so as not to be destroyed. This was a very sad period of his life.

He begun teaching in 1950. Although he once was a student of mathematics in the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), he decided to finish his bachelor's degree (sarjana) at the Drawing Teachers School (now ITB's School of Arts).

It was R. Muilder, one of his professors, who introduced him to modern Western painting styles, such as Cubism.

There where also others that he respected and had an influence on him: Angkama, Barli and Hendra Gunawan.

He later entered the Teacher Training Institute (IKIP) of Bandung as a teacher in the fine arts department.

Popo was a lecturer at the institute for 40 years and retired in 1995. He has also written articles on a wide variety of topics.

According Maman Noor, Popo wrote about 500 articles, mainly during the 1970s and 1980s. Some of these are to be published this year.

Popo collected of cameras and Sundanese music, and has a substantial library of books on culture, philosophy, literature and photography.

His work

Popo's works were exhibited at the National Gallery in February. As well as about 180 works of art, including paintings, sketches and woodcarvings, the exhibition, receiving more than 1,000 visitors, included many books and videos on Popo.

Evident in the exhibition was the development of Popo's long- running relationships with his cat and rooster themes. His cats of the 1970s and 1980s are enthusiastic, powerful, wild and always dynamic. With stark colors, also seen in his roosters, of white, black, red and gray. So brave, cheerful and optimistic. The rough, thick texture on the canvasses perhaps shows two things: The painter is never satisfied with the works, or he is always searching for the "truth" and the "finishing" of the painting.

Popo once wrote, "My work starts with an impression which I then develop into an idea. This, I express through a sketch I draw on a sheet of paper, directly or indirectly facing the object. This, I call my preliminary study. This does not always work though, I sometimes need some span of time to select which sketch I consider will succeed. Based on the preliminary study I then start painting.

"But this needs intuition, contemplation and sometimes trial and error, because I do not know the final result of my work which sometimes needs a long time to finish. That's why sometimes I put two figures at the bottom of my painting, such as 91/93, meaning I've worked on it from 1991 to 1993." This is from an entry in his diary, dated March 10, 1996.

Although it is true that his themes are quite varied, his favorite theme, and the theme of his strongest works, was the kucing.

Tisna Sanjaya, now a lecturer of fine arts at ITB, was once a student of Popo. "Popo is a mature painter, both in vision and depth of his works. Technicalities are no longer a problem in his painting. His themes of roosters and cats show his caliber. For me, especially the cat, this is the strength in himself. He has enhanced the existence of cats -- a pet, tame animal -- in his own way. This animal, an ordinary one, has become an expression of reality. Of anger, cuteness, wildness, passion, tenderness. In his loyalty to the theme, he seems to have been a digger of a well. He has been digging the well of his own creativity, enthusiasm, with his own honesty without any pretension at all. This is his clear strength to make what is considered 'tame' and 'common' into gigantic images. And through which appreciators of his works are allowed to see his inner self. The well has been dug up and the 'water' has become a lot of things. It can become a pond, a rice paddy, a lake, or whatever. His cat can become everything. I am perhaps jealous of him. Such a great painter."

Popo's strength is possibly his whole-hearted dedication to the world and to life. He has a courageous commitment to reality. The long journey of life has transformed this recipient of the government art award in 1980 into a mature and respected painter.

Art critic Umar Kayam from Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, in 1981 wrote, "As a painter he is one of the outstanding artists whose works are respected seriously by experts and art critics.

"This prestige has been achieved through his hard work, tenacity, seriousness in developing his own personality and, of course, he is a man of literature. The themes of his works are various: cats, bamboo, the sea, ships and other images. Possibly he is not interested in 'big' themes."

Popo wrote in his diary on Dec. 26, 1995, "What I want to achieve from my painting is to express what I've got from studying an object thoroughly and spiritually.

"A cat to me does not just consist of a head, a body and four legs and a tail. Because besides this that a cat is within a specific environment, which is inseparable from the cat's psychological situation and condition, which I've studied thoroughly before.

"I paint my own version of what I see, as other people could have different interpretations. This is what I call expressionism. It is a complete personal portrayal.

Jim Supangkat, independent gallery operator and art critic, said this of Popo: "In the modernist discourse, Popo Iskandar is believed to have obtained a special place in achieving the essential domain of the visual arts."

Popo today

Popo is living proof of his devotion to the profession. His 55 years of hard work has brought its rewards. His fame and success now was bought dearly. He was a painter in the time of Japanese and Dutch colonialism.

He has always been loyal to himself and his work. When times were harsh, he would buy canvas and paint instead of rice and tempeh for the family.

Now aged 72, this master of cats enjoys a stable life in Bandung, with 11 grown children, and several grandchildren.

The seeds of tenacity have now grown into a gigantic collection of works, both here and overseas.

For the young artists of Indonesia, Haji Popo Iskandar may be an ideal model of how an individual has decided his own fate.