Posters take one back to colonial years

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta

Posters, usually intended as a public notice about something, have always been in demand, particularly with the growing commercialism since the 19th century. In many cases, artists became involved and some of the best examples are found in the works commissioned to the famous Toulouse-Lautrec.

Although commercial in nature, posters do have an artistic charm that can sway the emotions into imageries in favor of the subject matter, though the 20th century has also seen posters used as vehicles for political promotion.

The Art Deco-style posters of Jan Lavies of the Netherlands fall in the first category. For Indonesians, the posters made during his seven-year stay in Indonesia, then the Nederlands Indie, have a special value for both their historical and emotional significance.

At a time when the country is suffering from the negative impact of the Bali bomb blast, with several foreign countries advising their citizens to avoid visiting this part of the globe, the exhibition of posters by Jan Lavies at the Dutch Cultural Center, Erasmus Huis, comes as a welcome event, fitting in with efforts to balance the negative atmosphere engulfing Indonesia today.

The posters that Jan Lavies made during his time in the Nederlands Indie (1925-1932) and beyond testify to his insight into the importance of bringing forth scenes of native life in a manner that thrills the senses and triggers the imagination.

Supple lines, a choice of strong, expressive -- but not glaring -- colors and a solid conception made his posters stand out. His first illustration titled Pasar Gambir, commissioned by the media office of Aneta for the magazine d'Orient, was an instant success.

No usual scenes of a pasar (market), just an intriguing and alluring flash of dance that lay between the traditional and the modern to denote the ambience. Similarly, his poster titled Danspaar (Dancing Couple), which he submitted to a contest, was praised by the media of that time for its "beautiful supple line" and "its unusual charm". It was further valued as a first-rate poster, though it was not awarded a prize.

A poster commissioned by the shipping company Koninklijke Paketvaar Maatschappij (KPM) in 1926 shows a black tree trunk and a Balinese woman in dark hues with just the pure white of the frangipani flower in her hair. All this is positioned against an orange background, symbolic of the sunsets at Kuta Beach, while a temple and mountains stand at the back in dimmed hues of gray, just to remind of the religious base of Balinese life. "By KPM to Bali" it says in gray letters on the black frame, with KPM standing out in white.

Even after Lavies departed from Java, and stopped in Singapore on his way back to The Netherlands, he still received commissions relating to the islands of Bali and Java. One poster made in 1932 for KNILM to promote the Royal Netherlands Indian Airways, the Dutch East Indian subsidiary of KLM at the time, shows an aircraft flying over green and yellow valleys with terraced rice fields, dark green palm trees and white clouds hanging low before blue mountains against a white/blue-washed sky.

The rice terraces in the valley are typical of Bali. Even more arresting is the peace such sceneries evoke and that Jan Lavies has captured so well.

Another commission by KNILM produced a poster to lure tourists to the island of Java. Rising up to the yellow sky are the domes of the Borobudur Temple, black in the front then gradually flowing in several hues of blue into the large dome in the back. "Fly to Java by KNILM," it says, referring to the air travel only with a small image of the aircraft.

During his time in Java, Jan Lavies also made posters promoting products like Dasco Flashlight and Battery, Eagle Thermos Flasks, Morti Mosquito Spray, Oldsmobile Six/General Motors, all in distinctive colors of ocher, orange, black and white.

Jan Lavies' posters relating to the Netherlands Indies remain alluring and splendid, even if that time is long past, for they show his skill at capturing the ambience of sceneries that are still intact in many places of the archipelago.

The style of his posters underwent some alteration with his change in environment. Back in Holland it seemed the emphasis on the product shifted to the figure, usually a female figure, in the poster. Several of these were not well received, or flatly rejected by the person who commissioned the poster.

Although his Scheveningen poster, featuring two bare female legs in the manner of photographic realism, was still allowed to hang in an exhibition, his design for a VVV (tourist agency) poster which featured a mermaid in skimpy bathing suit and provocative gesture appeared to be too much, even for the men in the VVV. It was rejected as being indecent. In our time, it would have been a gender issue, and considered an insult to women.

Times had changed, and Lavies was evidently unaware of the changing values. A poster design for King Pepermunt, showing the image of two boys giving one another a piece of peppermint, was rejected on the premise that it might provoke a sense of homoeroticism. A design for Ola-ijs (a popular brand of ice cream in Holland) using the image of a Negro boy was rejected due to its political implications.

Nevertheless, Jan Lavies has a special place in the history of posters, particularly through his contribution to highlighting the intriguing beauty of Java and Bali. Now 100 years old, Jan Lavies lives in Holland and looks back on a fulfilling past.

Jan Lavies, The Art of Poster exhibition, October 30 through December 5 at Erasmus Huis, Jl. HR Rasuna Said, Kav. S-3, Jakarta.