Widayat and the decorative realm of magic realism

By Parvathi Nayar Narayan

JAKARTA (JP): On the 140-metre-long canvas, Widayat has filled up 40 metres with Chinese ink. He is creating the story of his life and he works on it when he needs a break from his work, the latest examples of which are currently on exhibit in Jakarta.

One is immediately impressed by the sheer industry and creativity of the man. At age 77, Widayat holds one major show every year. Most of the 43 paintings in his current exhibition were painted from 1995 to 1996, for Widayat is a very prolific painter who works almost everyday.

As a concession to age he uses a stretcher on which his painting can slide in all directions, using a remote-controlled mechanism. This allows him to paint even the largest painting sitting down. Usually he paints three to five paintings at any given time, which allows for the thickly applied oil paints to dry. Most of the themes are not new ones, but interpretations of favorite subjects like nature -- with an emphasis on trees, fish and birds -- and idealized representations of man and nature.

Hence, it might come as a surprise that through these idealized compositions the painter is actually registering his protest of man's ruination of his beloved forests. His contribution is to try and preserve nature in paint, the nature he sees vanishing all around him. His landscapes tend to be a little sentimental. However, when he brings together man and nature the paintings are full of visual beauty, and what has often been called magic realism.

Melepas burung Kesayangannya is one such example. In another, Wanita dan Bunga di Taman, richly delineated foliage with an undertone of red frames a girl picking flowers in the center. Her yellowish face and blue dress are softly rendered in direct contrast to the strongly outlined foliage. The two elements are almost in two different styles, linked by the bond of heavy surface texture.

This is characteristic of Widayat's work, the heavy texture of the paint itself, over which are worked representational textures using brush, knife and more paint. This painting also points to the increasing centrality of his compositions. Earlier paintings had an overall surface density of images, whereas in newer works like Totem Keluarga h. Widayat, there is a single, often centrally based element of focus. In this painting, it is a totemic band down the entire length of the painting derived from Oceanic totem forms. Widayat has painted himself at the bottom of the totem, holding up his family of two wives, 11 children and 15 grandchildren.

Widayat changes the things he paints into magical and decorative creations that are typical of his art. Do his favorite subjects mean anything beyond being decorative representations? Fish, for instance, feature prominently in works like Ikan-Ikan Laut Dalam. This is, he says, a depiction of the intriguing variety of fish and fish forms in the deep sea; but fish also symbolize health for him. Apart from which his star sign is Pisces! The artist traces his love and understanding of nature to the time he spent working as a surveyor in the rubber plantations in Palembang, South Sumatra, from 1939 to 1942.

Widayat's artistic beginnings were as a street-side artist under the artist Mulyono in 1937, which he sees as a preparatory, learning time. He enrolled as an art student at age 31 at the ASRI Indonesian Arts Institute. Here he blossomed as an artist, profiting especially from the guidance of Hendra Gunawan. Later, Widayat himself taught at ASRI, and proved to be a very inspirational teacher.

Over the years, Widayat has been the recipient of many honors. These include prizes at Indonesia's Art Biennale (1974), at Yogyakarta's Art Biennale (1988) and from ASEAN (1993). In 1994, he opened the Museum H. Widayat in Mungkid, Magelang, Central Java. One floor showcases his best work, which his wife has held onto and refused to sell during the past 35 years. The top floor is reserved for the works of students, colleagues and other painters who have given some of their best works to him over the years.

Widayat's range of artistic expression includes drawings, graphics, sculpture, watercolors, ikebana, landscape architecture, and, most recently, ceramics which were shown in Jakarta in 1995. The current show has a few watercolors, which tend to be treated freely with Miroesque scribbles. A unique piece is Pergi ke Pasar Kota which the artist mistakenly dated as '59 instead of '95!

In the works on exhibit, a cubist influence is seen in oil paintings like Lima Figur and Beauty Contes. The former is more stylized, a solid central panel in tones of pale salmon, blue- grays and whites, within which 5 figures are delineated.

Widayat himself sees a movement in his more recent paintings towards a greater simplicity of form, a slightly brighter palette and a more modern outlook. He was partly forced to go this route by failing eyesight. Recent travels to the countries and museums of Australia and Japan also influenced him greatly.

His most recent painting Para Manula Jogging best exemplifies this shift, and also points the way to the future. The theme is drawn from the daily routine of the artist's life, and depicts the artist and his wife on their morning walk. Their two figures, the artist himself depicted as holding onto a stick, occupy the right half. There are two barking dogs, small images that nevertheless manage to dominate the rest of the canvas; they are familiar, noisy elements of an otherwise peaceful walk down the paths and riverbanks near their home close to Borobodur. Across the left side also appear, in rich earthy tones, the familiar patterning of cubist looking motifs, but within a freer space.

Widayat has been quoted as saying: "My paintings are decorations. And only decorations. The function of my paintings doesn't have to be anything other than that." While his style remains quintessentially Widayat, there is a slight yet definite shift in the latest paintings towards a simpler form of representation. He carries it off very successfully in Para Manula Jogging but not in Kuda Lumping another new work. The latter is not as appealing and lacks some focus.

The humor of the man comes through in paintings like Tiga Eksekutif where he says he's enjoying a gentle laugh at the expense of executives who dress so formally. They seem so rigidly bound by conventional notions of dress codes and appearance. The rectangular faces of paintings in these series is quite different from his other works. It is somewhat reminiscent of an earlier work titled Face in 1993, inspired by a primitive Tuscan mask which inspired a sculpture by Max Ernst in 1934-35, Bird-Head.

Actually, Widayat says he is inspired by all manner of things -- works of other artists, news stories, pictures in books, changes in the environment, religion. He is continually assimilating and interpreting these in his work. He has no intention of stopping or standing still. He wants to continue painting and creating for as long as he can, and inspire a younger generation of artists with his dedication and commitment.

His paintings range in price from Rp 7.5 to Rp 60 million (US$3,292 to $25,531). They are on view at the Galeri Santi, Jl. Benda No. 4, Cilandak Timur, Kemang, until May 12.