Sokaraja artists paid Rp 3,000 a painting

By Agus Maryono & Ngudi Utomo

BANYUMAS, Central Java (JP): Sokaraja, a district in Banyumas regency, is famous for fried gethuk (sweet loaves made of ground cassava) and, believe it or not, its paintings.

The latter, however, despite being rich in elements of traditional culture, has begun to show signs of decline. The paintings, priced at around Rp 15,000 each, come in at the lower end of the art market. Each painter is paid approximately Rp 3,000 for each work.

A number of art critics and observers have said that Sokaraja paintings have their own unique features. The paintings are rich in bright colors, particularly blue, white, yellow and red. Blue is usually predominant and because of this the painters are called naturalists, a label which they generally object to. They prefer to refer to themselves as the Sokaraja school.

They say that their painting skills have been handed down from one generation to another, indeed most also inherited the tools of their trade from their immediate ancestors.

Sokaraja is located eight kilometers east Purwokerto, the regency capital. The town's painters invariably depict mountains, paddy fields, lakes and moonlight.

Yet the days when all Banyumas residents aspired to hang one of these paintings in their homes has now passed. The locals have tired of these landscapes, although the artists say foreigners and people from other parts of the country are still interested.

One painter said that it was his late father, Ismail, who in 1940 first tried his hand at the style of work that has come to be known as a Sokaraja painting.

Suliman, 51, said Ismail taught the style to his family, relatives and neighbors. More and more paintings were produced and they found their way into many homes in the area.

Sokaraja paintings gained even greater popularity with the establishment of the Sokaraja Painting Association (Persenja). The association runs a cooperative which collects and displays Sokaraja paintings and the tools used to create them in the Sokaraja Art Gallery.

The gallery is situated on the busy Yogyakarta-Purwokerto- Semarang road.

The healthy demand for Sokaraja paintings has in the past inspired some residents to market them outside the immediate area, including in places as far afield as Riau and Lampung in Sumatra, and even in Malaysia and Singapore.

Sacks

Painters today remain true to the town's traditional painting techniques -- paint made of ocher applied to old wheat sacks.

Ocher has four basic colors -- yellow, blue, green and red -- so black is obtained from the ashes of charcoal used to light lamps. These limited colors are what make Sokaraja paintings immediately recognizable. Ocher is usually mixed with ancur, a wood adhesive, to make it stick to the canvas.

Sokaraja painters usually paint on a piece of sacking measuring about 140 cm by 170 cm. To get a canvas of this size two and a half wheat sacks are stretched then sewn together.

After being washed, the sacking is dried and starch evenly applied to stiffen it. It is then stretched out again and dried under the sun before being used.

Painting resembles an assembly line.

Over 10 canvases are often painted at the same time, explaining why the local artists are know as "painters by the score". Besides, they also sell their paintings by the score, or at least they used to.

Painters first give the canvasses a color base.

Then they paint on mountains and paddy fields and in this way the artists, most of them elderly residents, mange to produce over 10 paintings at the same time.

"When I was young I could finish 40 paintings in a day," Suliman said, adding that he began painting to help his parents financially.

Suliman's involvement in the cottage industry began in 1963 while he was still in elementary school. He used to help an established painter called Abdul Bakir make his canvases. Later Abdul taught his eager young helper how to paint.

Suliman began by applying color bases to the canvas and in this way gradually acquired his painting skills. He readily admits that he can only paint certain objects.

Nevertheless, Amri Yahya, a noted artist and lecturer at Yogyakarta's Indonesian Academy of Fine Arts, expressed admiration for Suliman's work.

It happened in 1970 after Suliman was invited by a number of Yoyakarta artists to demonstrate his skills. "I did not know that the man sitting cross-legged beside me was a noted artist," Suliman said of Amri.

He also said Amri had expressed his admiration for the painting techniques which are unique to Sokaraja.

Sadly the painters are now out of luck. The economic crisis has made their painting materials very much more expensive and orders from impoverished local residents have ground to a halt.

This forces the painters into an ever greater dependency on brokers to whom they sell paintings for between Rp 2,700 to Rp 3,000. Raw materials alone can cost as much as Rp 1,750 so they make almost no money from their considerable skills. A broker can then sell paintings for as much as Rp 15,000.

Paintings are rarely signed because the painters say they know their place.

"Only famous artists sign their works. I simply draw pictures which I sell to anybody who is interested in them," he said.