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.