Rare art exhibit a treat for public

Rare art exhibit a treat for public

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): Although art enthusiasts might be familiar with
the name of Kartono Yudhokusumo, knowledge about his artistic
oeuvre is relatively limited.

So far, the public has only had the opportunity to view a
small number of his works from a collection at the National
Gallery, including Melukis di Taman (Painting in the Garden) and
Anggrek (Orchids).

A few paintings can be seen in Claire Holt's Art in Indonesia,
which has been out of print for some time now.

In a modest exhibition to be held at one of Taman Ismail
Marzuki's exhibition galleries from July 26 through 31 July an
extensive collection of the artist's sketches and watercolors
will be on view.

As the artist's work is scarce, his paintings fetch high
prices. This scarcity has also caused many fakes to emerge in the
art market. Scholarship on the artist is still relatively
limited, and the scarcity of his works available for public
viewing also adds to the problem.

Kartono, born in Medan in 1924, was the son of noted art
teacher Yudhokusumo. Both Affandi and Sudjojono, recognized today
as the pioneers of Indonesian modern art, had strong connections
with Yudhokusumo.

Sudjojono was a pupil of Kartono's father, who adopted him as
his own son when he moved to Jakarta. The artist lived with the
Yudhokusumo family until he was 28 years of age. During his high
school years, Affandi also lived with the family, and it was
there that he met Sudjojono, who is known to have introduced him
to painting.

At high school, Kartono was taught by Sumardja. He often
painted with Sudjojono and Affandi, who lived with his family. He
is also known to have studied under the Japanese artist Yazaki,
Dutch artist Ernest Dezentje and Charlie Sayers. He is known to
have been influenced by Swedish artist Maria Ehnborg, who lived
in Bandung for a short period of time.

In 1943, the Japanese organization Poetera (Pusat Tenaga
Rakyat/People's Resource Center) sponsored the young artist's
first solo exhibition during the time of Japanese occupation.

Kartono joined the Seniman Indonesia Muda (SIM) (Young
Indonesian Artists) when it was established in 1946. Along with
other SIM members, he moved to Solo. There he encountered
Sudibio's work. Sudibio also had a significant impact on the
young artist.

SIM moved back to Yogyakarta in 1948 when the Dutch launched
military actions. During this time, Kartono found it hard to
paint and he moved to Madiun, joining the Tunas Muda art
association for a short period of time. Kartono remained in
Bandung since 1951. There he taught painting and founded the
Sanggar Seniman art group the following year.

Although influenced by many other artists, Kartono developed a
distinct style of his own. In his paintings, he made use of
motifs and forms developed from natural vegetation and flora. The
forms are highly stylized and even contrived, delineated with
rigid outlines and blocks of colors.

The unique manner in which he used repetition of motifs and
forms set in brightly colored settings is now known as
Decorativism. Kartono is widely recognized as the pioneer of
Indonesian Decorativism, which has been adopted by many artists
even to this day.

The artist's sketches and watercolors show a different side of
the artist's oeuvre. While his paintings are highly stylized and
brightly colored, most of his sketches and watercolors are
tremendously spontaneous and done in somber colors. Yet, his
sketches also start to reveal some signs of his methods of
distortion and stylization.

The distorted forms in his sketches and watercolors reveal the
artist's sadness as well as his intense concern and anxiety.
Kartono's amorphic clouds often seem to be warped, expressing a
feeling of uncertainty within the artist's mind. His trees seem
to dance with the rhythm of the night, swaying to the moonlight
amid the darkness.

Kartono's sketches and watercolors express his struggle to
achieve happiness. His distorted forms in his works resemble the
distorted figure in Edward Munch's The Scream. This might explain
the fact that his work was popular among the Scandinavian
community in Indonesia as Claire Holt mentioned in her historic
Art in Indonesia.

Kartono died in 1957, following a traffic accident which
involved the motorcycle he was riding. His death at an early age
has added to the difficulty of researching into his life and
oeuvre. Perhaps this simple exhibition of sketches and
watercolors held at the Taman Ismail Marzuki will offer a
significant contribution to the limited scholarship on the
artist.