Tris Neddy: Generous, spirited artist

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Wearing a purple kebaya (Javanese blouse) and brown sarong, a woman is sleeping on a blue chair. The walls are painted blue and the ground, purple and green. A red parrot has its eyes fixed on her.

That acrylic painting is titled Dreaming. The short title provides an apt description of the painting.

It is one of the artworks by Tris Neddy Santo on display in an exhibition titled Spirit of Art 1970 - 2005 at Galeri Nasional in Gambir, Central Jakarta from Sept. 30 through Oct. 10.

Tris' artworks are generally easy for the layman to understand. They are forthright in nature, though background information may be helpful in analysis.

Dreaming is among a few paintings hung in the first room of the exhibition. Like most of her paintings, Dreaming shows her skills as a graphic artist.

Tris is no Basuki Abdullah nor Affandi who specialize in realism and abstraction respectively. The dean of the School of Fine Arts at the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) has her own style. Tris graduated from the School of Arts and Design at the Bandung Institute of Technology in 1974.

In Perempuan Jawa (Javanese Lady), Tris portrays a woman sitting on a sofa. The sofa is similar to the one in Dreaming, but the color is different.

Like Dreaming, Perempuan Jawa also features a woman sitting on a sofa in the corner of a room.

Tris is at home working in a variety of media. She has produced wooden sculptures, paintings, installations and mastered several printmaking techniques.

On display in the exhibition are 1971 lithograph Oh Buah Hatiku (Oh My Beloved Child) and 1973 wood cut Kucingku Sayang (My Beloved Cat), both of which she produced as a student.

Another lithograph, Mimpi di Taman Bunga Indah (Dream in a Beautiful Flower Garden), is of a naked woman holding a bucket of flowers.

In his speech at the opening of the exhibit, former tourism and culture minister I Gede Ardika told the audience of about 100 people the exhibition was valuable not only for Tris herself but also for other Indonesian artists.

"Through her works, we will see a person with a strong sense of tradition rooted in her soul. She shows us that traditional art is not a static kind of art. It can be dynamic and lively," Ardika said. It is an exhibition that focuses on her technical abilities and path as an artist.