The other side of Adam Malik through brushstrokes

Jakarta (ANTARA) - “…my attention to national painting, which began even before the independence era, has always been driven not only by appreciation from an artistic perspective, but also by an awareness of how vital the power of painting is as one of the expressions of the ideals of the Indonesian nation’s national struggle from era to era,” said Adam Malik in the book “Paintings from the Collection of Adam Malik, Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia”, 1978.

Adam Malik (1917–1984) was known as an anti-colonial activist, journalist and one of the founders of the ANTARA News Agency, a diplomat, and later Vice President of Indonesia for the period 1978-1983.

However, perhaps not many know that he was also an art collector. He built a collection, which later became known as the Adam Malik Collection, through friendships with artists such as S Sudjojono since the 1940s, who was a key figure in modern Indonesian art and was given the title “Father of Modern Indonesian Painting”.

Adam Malik was friends with artists, among others in the Indonesian Drawing Experts Association (Persagi), Young Indonesian Artists (SIM), People’s Painters, and even with the People’s Culture Institute (Lekra).

It was this network of friendships that later helped him build an art collection, particularly paintings, from 1949 onwards. Adam Malik’s closeness to historical events and to the artists shaped a distinctive painting collection.

Several paintings he collected record intimate stories of communities in transition between tradition and modernity, identity and social struggle in the early New Order era.

Through the exhibition “The Adam Malik Collection” at the Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics (MSRK) Jakarta on 15-23 August 2026, curators Farah Wardani and Amir Sidharta presented the distinctive character of the diplomat’s painting collection to the public. This exhibition also marks 50 years since the establishment of the Jakarta Arts Council, the predecessor of the Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics (MSRK) Jakarta, which was opened on 20 August 1976.

A total of 22 paintings are on display, some of which were previously presented in the inaugural exhibition “A Century of Indonesian Art” (1876-1976), which brought together 131 works from public and private collections, including 15 from Adam Malik.

A number of paintings from the Adam Malik Collection that are rarely exhibited are also presented, including a work by S Sudjojono, titled “Maka Lahirlah Angkatan 66” (Thus Was Born the Generation of 66), which encapsulates the complexity and significance of the collection, while also demonstrating the interconnection between art and politics and the relationship between artist and patron.

The work was painted amid the political upheaval of 1966, recording the atmosphere of Jakarta when public spaces were filled with slogans, graffiti, and demands for change.

It shows a young man in a red jacket gripping a paint can, surrounded by protest writings referring to the political events of the time. The identity of the young man is deliberately left ambiguous, inviting various interpretations about change and the uncertainty of the era.

This is the only and final painting made by Sudjojono with a narrative that directly refers to the factual political situation of the country.