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.