Six artists share their impressions on the art of drawing

JAKARTA (JP): Drawing is the basic scaffolding of all artistic expression. ...The Chinese call it "the bones" of the picture on which everything is hung. Drawing is an adventure, a creative experience in the mind the imagined shape. Drawing is seeing with the mind as well as the eye (Benjamin Rowland in Cave to Renaissance: Great Drawings of the World).

The above paragraph quoted by Astri Wright, a Ph.D. researcher of Modern Indonesian Art at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, in her article From the Spontaneously Gestured to the Minutely Labored: The Art of Drawing, might be one appropriate definition of drawing.

Where as writing was unknown to people of prehistoric times, drawings were done everywhere, including in caves and on rocks, which later became very informative sources to depict the world during those times.

In her article, Astri says that for today's artist, a drawing can be anything; From a sketch, aimed at improving an artist's skill of capturing a form naturally, to a memory device, which forms the basis of a later, more carefully executed job to be done in the artist's studio.

Drawing, she writes, "can also be a fine example of visionary and technical mastery intended as a finished product in itself, or the most spontaneous, intimate scribbling, with no rules or self-censoring, the artist's equivalent to a writer's personal diary".

Six artists, graduates from Bandung's Institute of Technology, give their impressions on the art of drawing.

"To me, drawing is a way to spontaneously manifest both my vision and emotions in a private way. I draw not only for myself, but to initiate a dialog with friends, or with admirers, through visual sensations which are, I hope, both pleasant and able to be appreciated, however modestly," T. Sutanto said. Sutanto has exhibited his drawings more than 20 times around the world.

Priyanto S., a cartoonist of the defunct Tempo magazine (from 1977 until its banning last year), who now works for the Forum Keadilan magazine, has never entertained the slightest wish to stop drawing. "Drawing is made from wandering hands and thoughts, adventures without limitations on destinations, or roaming at will, while capturing all that is flying through the mind. Exploring, discovering, or stumbling, but always enjoying, and without burden. Hopefully, the drawing itself, like the process of its creation, may be enjoyed together...Amen," he said.

Satyagraha, who is also an accomplished sculptor, says that his drawing attempts illuminate what the eye reflects, even outside of this world and within ourselves.

"When drawing a person, a landscape, or a still life, I retreat into myself and try to make the object into the subject. All this offers no conclusions, so I work it again and again, until the conclusion arrives, like a miracle rewarded," Satyagraha says poetically. "Through this process of soul- searching, lines are eliminated, simplified and strengthened, while simultaneously surrounding the object. Both pencil and eraser leave a mark."

S. Prinka, a lecturer at the Jakarta Art Institute, and former art director and printer of the banned Tempo magazine and graphic consultant for magazines Forum Keadilan, Medika and Kalam, says that to draw is to wander with strides that are sure, brisk and colossal, or shaky, giddy and brooding.

"Drawing can turn reality into fantasy," he added.

Diddo Kusdinar, who loves to draw lines, and more lines, and gives the one title Just Lines to not less than 20 of his drawings, said that drawing as an art is a new reality which doesn't need any reason.

"A piece of artwork is the closest phenomena to thoughts, which are otherwise unable to be captured by words," he says.

Wagiono, a director of the advertising and graphic design company, Grapos, and who has studied at the Pratt Institute in New York, said, "The art of drawing is a great and comfortable art form, more serious and responsible than graffiti or doodling, but more relaxed than painting."

Such is the important and essential role played by the art of drawing.

Nowadays, in spite of its mushrooming exhibitions and growing number of galleries, Indonesia never seems to touch on the world of drawing. Appreciation for art has increased, but is limited mostly to painting.

Noted art critic Jim Supangkat says, "Almost all exhibitions are painting exhibitions. The works which inundate the art market, and are bid for at the highest prices, are again paintings. Discussions and desire for further studies, which are regarded as proof of increased art appreciation, are limited to the desire for further information on painting - particularly on the appropriate prices of paintings."

To develop the public's appreciation of drawing and to show that drawing is actually not on a "lower" level to painting, The Jakarta Post will exhibit drawings done by the above six artists in a single exhibition entitled Pameran Gambar Segi Enam (Exhibition of Original Drawings).

The exhibition, to be officially opened this evening, will feature about 150 drawings. It will be open to the public from Oct. 14 to Oct. 23, at Bentara Budaya Jakarta, Jl. Palmerah Selatan 17, Central Jakarta. (als)