Sokaraja artists paid Rp 3,000 a painting

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.