Widayat and the decorative realm of magic realism

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.