Sonny is a beacon for provincial artists

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.