Warso paints human issues with a brush of beauty
By Yogita Tahil Ramani
JAKARTA (JP): Splashes on the canvas of turquoise blue and linings in sunflower yellow formed the eye-catching, iridescent abstraction.
The contoured form seemed to pulsate in a reverently melancholic mood, as serene as if lulled by an engaging dream while asleep. Cloaked in ethereal colors, the nude woman lying on the sofa (Wanita Di Atas sofa) seemingly hid her expression behind the hair falling in front of her face.
Painter Sri Warso Wahono, 49, is exhibiting bold splatterings of simmered frustrations at Taman Ismail Marzuki's Cipta III Gallery, Central Jakarta, until Aug. 24. Thoughtful works include frozen human and social concerns that derive not so much sympathy as mystical, even mythical awe.
Abstractions are undauntedly pronounced, as dominating colors of fiery red, indigo blue, sea-green, and viscous white call for thoughtful viewing rather than simple browsing glances.
Warso has done more with depicting hidden controversial themes in bright narcissistic light than concern-provoking starkly- painted expressions ever could -- counteracting the morbid truth with the beauty of art, not its ferocity. (The definitive plus- point for art-commercialization).
The most intriguing track-stopping, vision-shocking work lies between canvases of bright blooming flowers that act as neutralizers. Dasamuka, a larger-than-life bold atrocity portrays Hindu epic antagonist Rahwana in ghastly indigo blue, complete with beastly paws and a lionesque form.
"This is his beastly side expressed in paint," said Warso. "I used indigo blue to portray the dark truth". The painter had some imagination. The colors accentuated, vivifying the devilish streaks of a disoriented king.
In Rampongan, fire flares in frozen inflammations, as warring forces torch a city, marvelously portrayed in gold and red. Warso explained about aged-old war mechanisms and troops surreptitiously taking over a city, as the inspiring thoughts.
While one stunning painting, Kamar Indah Berbunga (Room Filled With Flowers), depicts a beautiful Javanese woman bedecked in traditional costume resting on her doorstep, another must-see would be the abstraction/religious-venting piece Lagu Pujian Bagi Allah, or song of praise for Allah. The colors were so distractingly profound, Warso had to point out the man with outstretched arms, calling out to his savior Allah for salvation.
A controversy-inciting piece called Monumen Tanah Muria (Monument of the Muria Land) portrays skeletons and charred people, as aftereffects of a hypothetical nuclear fallout at the nuclear power plant, situated on Mount Muria, Central Java. Commendable concern, but nothing short of surrealism for now.
Excepting those of sentimental value to the artist, the paintings are for sale, priced between Rp 1,500,000 (US$530) and Rp 20,000,000.
At best, even at their most ferocious, the paintings still manage to be pleasantly breathtaking.
Born in Solo (Surakarta), Central Java, in 1948, Warso started painting in 1962. He has eight painting exhibitions to his name. A 1975 Fine Arts graduate at the city's teachers training institute, he ran his own art culture workshop in Central Java till 1976. He has traveled to Europe, the United States and the Philippines for work and was a member of the Jakarta Art Council.