Sriyanto -- Painting, Drawings and Sketches

Jayakarta Agung Offset, 2000

234 pp

Rp 300,000 (soft cover), Rp 400,000 (hardback)

JAKARTA (JP): It is normally difficult to see your favorite artist's whole range of works in one place, unless you have the luxury of going to the artist's museum or gallery.

Bambang Sriyanto Salamoen, a painter and banker, has found a commendable solution to the problem. He is trying to make his works known to a wider audience by publishing a book.

The catalog-style book he launched on Thursday at his gallery in the upmarket Pondok Indah area of the capital carries a selection of 217 of his paintings, drawings and sketches.

Better known as an impressionist, Sriyanto includes works from the last five years which have contemporary abstract nuances made with oil, watercolor, pastel and acrylic.

"In fact Sriyanto is a landscape painter in the true sense," Barli Sasmitawinata, chairman of the Indonesian Watercolor Society, wrote in the book's foreword.

Born in the small Central Java town of Cepu in 1937, Sriyanto is a self-taught artist, making friends with artists as a youth in Surabaya where he studied law at Airlangga University.

He has traveled around the world to visit galleries housing works of world-renowned artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, van Gogh and more contemporary artists like Willem de Kooning, Philip Gustron and Mark Rothko.

Sriyanto is fascinated by the Chinese painting style and philosophy that he learned in Singapore for six years, practicing the black-and white Chinese brush painting technique on rice paper.

The book, presenting Sriyanto's works on various paper types using pastel, pencil, charcoal and ink is organized in six major categories: landscape, floral still life, portraits of women, Chinese ink on rice paper, abstract and "other works".

The book provides a complete overview of Sriyanto's artistic journey, akin to a visit to his gallery for a first-hand look. It is available in a limited print edition of 1,000 copies. (pan)