The enchantment of Indonesian batik circles Washington
The enchantment of Indonesian batik circles Washington
By Kunang Helmi Picard
WASHINGTON DC (JP): A batik exhibition is being held at the prestigious Textile Museum in Washington DC to mark a year-long celebration marking 50 years of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Indonesia and the United States of America.
Fabric of Enchantment: Batik from the North Coast of Java, which runs until April 26, is organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and curated by the Associate Curator of Costumes and Textiles, Dale Carolyn Gluckman.
Batik collector Inger McCabe Elliot should certainly be no stranger to serious Indonesian collectors of batik who inevitably have a copy of her book Batik, Fabled Cloth of Java in their library. It is her collection, housed in the Los Angeles County Museum, that provides the bulk of over 40 Javanese batiks on display.
According to respected textile expert Dr. Mattiebelle Gittinger, research associate at the Textile Museum, the show highlights the visual beauty and technical virtuosity of the coastal region where the batiks were made. Gittinger introduced the show with her presentation of historical facts the day after the opening.
Those fine pieces on display are mainly batik pesisir, named after the coastal region of origin, and reflect the major influences of the period from the early 19th century through World War II and the initial period of Indonesian independence in the early 1950s. According to information provided by the Textile Museum, village women, prior to the 19th century, produced the fine batik, batik tulis, on the north coast of Java, mostly imitating imported Indian cloth favored by the Javanese elite.
Later, these women began to sell locally made batiks back to the Indo-Chinese and Indo-Arabian traders who sold them the white cloth made in Europe which had become cheaper. The merchants ordered batik sarongs and shoulder cloths to satisfy their clients' demands.
Batik motifs then began to incorporate emblems of ethnic identity of the Chinese, European and Arabian communities of the north coast, and the pieces were increasingly signed by their designers. Gittinger pointed out that in the 19th century, the signed batik from the workshops of, for example, A.J.F. Jan, Lien Metzelaar or Eliza van Zuylen were the equivalent of haute couture creations today.
The tubular sarong was gradually replaced in favor of the larger flat cloth common to Central Java during the 1920s and 1930s, bringing about slightly changed design formats with, for example, the pagi-sore (morning-afternoon) arrangement in which two different motifs and/or color schemes are incorporated.
Just before Japanese occupation (1942-1945), two ways to create an illusion of depth were introduced, with shading filler- patterns and a darker color area in the center of flowers. Later on during the occupation, the Djawa Hokkai style, with its intricate backgrounds, emerged. New styles were developed after independence with the Djawa Baroe and Batik Nasional, adding a brighter palette of colors. Batik artists along Java's north coast used both cotton and silk, but cotton predominated. The range of batiks on display covers the various styles.
A catalog, written by Dr. Rens Heringa, a Tuban batik expert based in Leiden, and Dr. Harmen Veldhuizen, expert on Indo- Chinese and Indo-European batik, is also available during the exhibition.
Heringa held a lecture on Dress Codes and Political Change/Mestizo Dress on Java, 1840-1960 at the Textile Museum on March 4. This is an area of research now being examined by a few experts, including Heringa, who has vast experience in the field in Java.
Well-known art historian Dr. Helen Jessup is scheduled to talk about Art of the Indonesian Courts on April 7.
One can only hope that this show and the lecturers will find their way to Indonesia, perhaps to complete the planned annual textile conference to be held in Bali, Indonesia, at the end of June this year.