Sonny is a beacon for provincial artists

By Harry Bhaskara

MANADO, North Sulawesi (JP): Painter Sonny Lengkong's solo exhibition debut in Jakarta in 1990 proved to be a wake-up call for the capital's art critics.

Not only did they learn that artists in the regions were alive and kicking, but also that they were capable of producing works that were on par with artists on Java, which for a long time has been used as the only cultural and artistic yardstick for Indonesian art.

Sonny recalled Jakarta-based art critic Agus Dharmawan saying that painters from North Sulawesi had been sidelined for 160 years, from 1840, when internationally recognized painter Raden Saleh from Java reigned supreme.

National recognition for painters from outside Java, absurd as it may sound, has had to be won through Jakarta. The city's media and critics work rather like a noble baptizer.

"True we have had Henk Ngantung but he basically grew up in Jakarta," Sonny said, referring to the late former Jakarta governor-cum-painter who hailed from Manado.

Since his first exhibition in Jakarta, Sonny has held yearly shows in major cities throughout the country.

On his return home from his debut in Jakarta, Sonny changed part of his home into a gallery and since then it has been the meeting place of leading Manado painters Jhon Semuel and Timmi Waworuntu.

Sonny had been a painting teacher for 14 years in a Manado school when he decided to become a professional painter in 1990. He made the decision following a successful first solo exhibition in Manado a year earlier. But opposition to his decision came from people near him.

"All my relatives ostracized me telling me that I was mad," he said. "At that time it was very difficult to become a civil servant but I decided to quit, although, with a Rp 750,000 monthly salary, I had no complaints.

"I was intrigued by the thought that through out this time painting had always been a part-time hobby and I could already get recognition of sort in Manado. What if I took it seriously?" he said in retrospect.

The well-built, long-haired and mustachioed Sonny was born in 1957 in Tomohon, a cool and scenic mountainous area to the south of Manado. His father was a painter of film posters.

"I was very fond of those posters. I used to carry them in and out of Tomohon villages to lure people to see the movies," said the painter with a warmness and energy not uncommon to Minahasans.

He said he could not remember his childhood very clearly but relatives told him that when he was very small the wall's of his house were full of black charcoal sketches

The themes of his paintings, he said, come from childhood obsessions.

"When I was given pocket money to ride a bendi (a horse-drawn carriage) I didn't take the ride but run along side it while holding on to one of its rear railings so that I could save the money to buy snacks," he told The Jakarta Post in his small but cozy gallery tucked away in an alley in central Manado.

"I love cows very much and used to dream of owning one but my family was too poor to afford one. So I used to hire one in the morning and return it in the afternoon," he said with a sparkle in his eyes.

Hence, bendi and cows are among the objects of his paintings, along with anything that holds the pulse of life in North Sulawesi including cakalele war dancers, cikar (cow-drawn harvest carts), cockfighting and boats.

Sonny paints in a guratan style, that is using his fingers and nails instead of a painting brush.

How long does he need to finish a painting?

"Very quick," he said, "only about 20 minutes".

He did not realize at the time that the way he painted was similar to the late Affandi, one of Indonesia's noted painters who used his hands and painting tubes on canvas, painting very quickly in a trance-like state.

"I did not know about Affandi's style then. I learned a lot from my young students. In fact I founded my style through them," Sonny said.

Some of his students were not keen, having been forced to attend painting lessons by their parents, he said.

"Therefore they were always eager to leave their classes as soon as possible to get home soon. They resorted to using their fingers to get their paintings done quickly and refused to employ the conventional method, or the 'mathematics' of painting.

"It was so interesting to watch them painting. When I tried to imitate them I became enthralled and adopted their method through and through," he said.

Sonny still finds time to teach painting to locals and foreigners alike.

His works, marked by strong, authentic, aesthetic and effective strokes, are greatly enhanced by a light from the back of the canvas.

Asked about his ambitions, he said he was obsessed with introducing North Sulawesi to the world, and was keen to create smaller paintings.

"Imagine if tourists could carry postcard-sized paintings of mine in their pockets," he said.