Tris Neddy: Generous, spirited artist

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.