Widayat reveals unknown life in exhibit

Widayat reveals unknown life in exhibit

He is trying to prove that his hands are translating his
innermost emotions, his love for art, his imagination.
-- Hari Budiono & R. Badil

JAKARTA (JP): No other words can better introduce the ceramic
paintings exhibition by H. Widayat, one of Indonesia's most
important senior painters to date.

To be opened today at the Bentara Budaya Jakarta on Jl.
Palmerah Selatan 17, inside the Kompas-Gramedia complex, the
exhibition reveals one aspect of Widayat's life that is known to
only a few.

One of Indonesia's foremost senior painters together with the
late Affandi, Hendra Gunawan and S. Sudjojono, Widayat, 76, is
best known for his paintings of trees and animals. A master of
line and color, Widayat's paintings are infused with a kind of
mysterious magic that raises them far above the merely decorative
genre.

Yet, he is actually well-versed in other media of expression,
a fact not very well known to the general public. Although his
name and works have often appeared in the local and international
media, few know that he has experimented in other art forms. On
the side, Widayat is also a sculptor, a graphic artist, a
landscape artist and a ceramics artist.

Born in Kutoardjo, Central Java, Widayat's encounter with
ceramics took place in Japan, where he studied from 1960 to 1962
on a scholarship.

"I chose ceramics as my first choice in addition to studying
flower arrangement or ikebana, gardening and graphics," he said
as quoted by Hari Budiono and R. Badil in their essay Clay Full
of Prayer in Rona Tembikar: Clay Colors published by The Jakarta
Post in conjunction with the exhibition.

Widayat chose ceramics because he felt he had a connection
with clay.

"Other than drawing on ceramics in Yogya, I often worked with
clay at Kasongan and Pedes villages," he explained.

The exhibition which features 85 clay works in various forms
-- plates, slabs and pitchers -- was the result of a visit to the
workshop of noted Indonesian ceramist F. Widayanto in Tapos,
Bogor last year.

"Thirty years ago I dreamed of making ceramic pieces and
having a workshop just like this," he said. That night, during
dinner, the discussion centered on ceramics techniques. The
discussion ended with one participant suggesting that Widayat
paint on ceramics. Widayanto grabbed the opportunity to offer
Widayat the use of his workshop, and thus the first step towards
this exhibition was made.

Widayat's enthusiasm in his new venture surprised even art
critics.

"It is not often that an art historian or art critic who has
followed the work of senior artist his 70s closely for the last
eight years has cause for surprise at a sudden innovation in that
artist's work," writes art historian Astri Wright.

The best known example in art history of such an artist is
Picasso, who, all along his life as an artist, explored new media
and styles with the open-mindedness and playfulness found only in
children and in geniuses. If Picasso and Widayat share something
in creative breadth and stylistic similarities in some of their
drawings and sketches, there are also many important differences
between these two artists, which highlight both differences in
personality and contrasting cultural ideas and realities, Wright
notes.

Whether or not Widayat encountered Picasso's ceramics through
publications or travels, many of the artist's themes and styles
show an affinity. They both depict the power of the eye set in
large broad faces; they both depict humans with horses, birds and
fish. On the formal level, they both use a combination of fluid
lines, decorative patterns and large areas of glazes to cover the
surfaces of the pieces.

Widayat's faces, however, show a larger range of emotional
nuances than Picasso's; his human figures relate differently to
each other and to their surroundings, and where Picasso includes
bulls and suns into his repertoire, Widayat includes trees and
monkeys, Wright says.

Some of Widayat's ceramics on exhibition consist of three-
dimensional monochrome forms with distinct panels of painted
glazes; other ceramics, like the plates, emphasize the two-
dimensionality of the glazed designs, more like drawings or
paintings, she adds.

This is Widayat's biggest ceramic exhibit, ever. Yet, he says
that it does not mean there will be similar exhibitions in the
future.

"I am a painter. I wanted to exhibit, this one time, my
paintings on clay. These ceramics, beautiful and long-lasting
(unless it falls and breaks), are only to soothe my longing for
the dreams I had long ago," said Widayat.

The exhibition is scheduled to close on Wednesday, Sept. 20.
(lem)