Srihadi Soedarsono: Exploring the path of his artistic soul

Srihadi Soedarsono: Exploring the path of his artistic soul

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta

Artists often tend to be appreciated by their most recent works,
and this is no different for Srihadi Soedarsono, who is mostly
known by his abundant works on dance figures, the repetition of
themes related to seascapes, horizon landscapes and multiple
images of the Borobudur temple.

But Srihadi is certainly more than that, evident from the book
written by noted art critic Jean Couteau, published by the Lontar
Foundation and launched by Sri Susuhunan Pakoe Boewono XII on
June 25.

The Path of the Soul consists of two hardcover books, each
32.5 x 25.5 cm in size, and titled respectively A Retrospective
of the Artist's Career, which contains the writer's text and
pictures of selected works (208 pages), and A Picture Gallery,
with photographs of works owned by collectors as well as the
artist, with an Indonesian version of Jean Couteau's English text
(286 pages). It comes in a robust case, all in all weighing a
hefty five kilograms.

There is no doubt that the artist's retrospective is the most
interesting of the two parts. Eloquently, Couteau pictures
Srihadi's evolution against the background of changing social and
political situations, as well as the art streams in the country.

Couteau skillfully has Srihadi emerge as an artist of
character, a man who remained aloof of mainstream trends, an
innovator of style who excelled as a natural colorist, a person
who took part in the fight for freedom and is now exploring his
spiritual path.

He does so by dividing the book into four chapters, dealing
with the artist's life in chapter one, proceeding with the
influences in chapter two, and on to chapter three on "Rasa
(taste) and its Impact", while the last chapter discusses the
artist's work.

Srihadi was born in 1931 in Surakarta, Central Java, the
heartland of Javanese culture. Through his grandfather, a maker
of sacred kris, he learned the ways and symbols of old Java,
while his grandmother taught him how to meditate. His Javanese
upbringing was to have a lasting impact on his works in that he
maintained his Javanese value system no matter what influences he
absorbed.

It is Java that shaped Srihadi's youth and it is Java that he
deals with in his work as he seeks to discover the essence of
what lies beyond the visible, says Couteau in his introduction of
the retrospective. More than any painter of his generation,
Srihadi goes to the core of the Javanese soul: he modernizes and
individualizes its expression.

And as he does so, he also Javanizes modern art, contends
Couteau.

Srihadi's interest in art was rooted in his cultural
background, but it was his admiration of Japanese esthetics that
stirred his senses. The posters portraying the glory of the land
of the rising sun spurred him to study drawing and painting. He
was still in elementary school when World War II touched the East
Indies, and his parents later enrolled him at a Japanese-run
junior high school.

With the surrender of the Japanese and the proclamation of
independence, Srihadi joined in the overall nationalistic fervor.
He signed up for the Badan Keamanan Rakjat (the People's Security
Force), the forerunner of the Indonesian Army, and it did not
take long before he was assigned to design posters and record
events in the field. This experience, too, was to have a lasting
impact on his later work.

Posters needed to be short but precise to convey the message,
while the composition had to be as simple as possible; capturing
events in the field required excellent drawing as well as fast
analytical skills. His competence is measured by the impact of
his drawings.

Srihadi's detailed series about the wreckage of the Republic-
owned Dakota airplane, which was shot down while carrying medical
supplies by the Dutch, caused an outcry at the United Nations and
compelled the Dutch to agree to a cease-fire a few days later.
Srihadi was barely 15 years old at that time.

He was self-taught, but his earlier drawings already showed a
rare maturity, as evident in his pencil on paper self-portrait
(1947), the conte on paper drawing of Soedjojono (1947), the
conte crayon on paper portrait of Sukarno (1947) and of
participants at the Kaliurang Conference (1948).

The book provides good insight into the several influences on
Srihadi's works: the Bandung School of Art, which some dubbed the
laboratory of the West, where he came under the spell of Ries
Mulder, a Cubist painter and art educator who was influenced by
the School of Paris; and Ohio State University, Columbus, where
the artist pursued more knowledge, better skills but nevertheless
remained true to his typical Javanese value system.

According to Couteau, it is the quest for the essence of
things that runs as the golden thread throughout the artist's
career. But while the artist used to emphasize the social aspect
of his Javanese sense of identity, his quest became increasingly
spiritual, continues Couteau.

It's a reminder that Srihadi's changing emphasis in his older
years harks back to an older Javanese tradition as described in
classic literature: After the hero has led his life of adventure,
he then withdraws to a sacred mountain to meditate and,
eventually, commune with the Divine. His works became even
simpler in form and even more contemplative in spirit.

Srihadi is first and foremost a colorist. The visual melody of
Srihadi's paintings is, primarily, one of color which has changed
with time, says Couteau. In Srihadi's Bandung days, color was
contained within the contour, and the melody consisted of well-
defined notes.

During the abstract period, color took an intuitive turn and
became the foundation for a combination of biomorphic shapes,
sometimes in rhythmic expressions and luminous reds and blues,
but more often in somber, dark browns and reds. Couteau profusely
praises the different nuances in seemingly repetitive paintings
of horizon seascapes and landscapes, as well as the multiple
representations of Borobudur.

In fact, Couteau interprets most of Srihadi's works from the
mid-1970s onward as multiple attempts to achieve the symbolic
unity of God and Man. Even in the figurative paintings, mostly
from the dance and theater worlds, Couteau sees Srihadi's
endeavor for unity with God. The painting is merely a meditative
tool, and ultimately a sign of the oneness of being, he insists.

Couteau's eloquence is matched by the excellent print of the
artist's works. Fantastic explorations of color, like in Painting
(1960), where a combination of dots, daubs and drips of opaque
and transparent color express the sense of the mystique that has
haunted the artist throughout his career and his endeavors toward
spiritual perfection.

Of the many plates in the book, a few further trigger our
finer senses, such as Sunset at Sanur Beach (1964), Three Dancers
(1965), The Memory of Ratih's Birth (1966), The Sea (1968), Full
Moon above Borobudur (1989), The Hungry People (1961), Wayang
Golek Puppet (1978), all oil on canvas.

The book also gives a list of Srihadi's honors and awards, as
well as a list of his numerous solo exhibitions throughout the
world. There is also an index of the paintings and their sources.

The book is recommended reading, for more than a detailed
retrospective on the life and work of Srihadi Soedarsono, it also
offers some background to his seeming repetitions of successful
works, as well as the history of modern Indonesia.