Yusuf Susilo Hartono

Yusuf Susilo Hartono
Contributor
Jakarta

Surakarta, better known as Solo, has a long cultural history,
particularly in the arts. The city has a style of its own in the
fields of dancing, shadow puppetry and bridal make-up, genres of
art originating in the Surakarta palace.

In modern painting, Solo once had artists who were greatly
concerned with the state of the city, known the world over as one
of the centers of Javanese culture. One of these artists was
Dullah (1916-1996), a palace painter during the administration of
Sukarno, Indonesia's first president.

Amid the hullabaloo of contemporary fine arts, the artistic
community remains greatly enamored of his works, which generally
dwell on the exoticism of rural life and the naivete of village
children and young women.

Before the establishment of the city's Sebelas Maret
University (UNS) in 1976, the Surakarta Cultural Society (HBS)
was widely recognized as an association of Solo artists,
indigenous or otherwise, and also a place where they could
improve their skills.

In a situation not particularly conducive to the development
of painting, four painters from Solo, all teaching at UNS, are
now exhibiting their works at Galeri Cipta II at Ismail Marzuki
Park.

These painters are Arfial Arsad Hakim, 52, a graduate of
Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB); Sunarto, 55, also an ITB
graduate; Suatmadji, 51, a graduate of Yogyakarta's Indonesian
Arts Institute (ASRI), and Putut H. Pramono, a UNS graduate.

As there is no common theme, the four demonstrate their own
styles in the works exhibited.

Arfial, actively exhibiting his works since 1974, presents the
poetic image of West Sumatra's chain of mountains through the
soft and analytical use of color. Houses, roads, trees, rice
fields, hills, the sea and beaches feature in this oil paintings,
which rely on the use of soft colors: raw brown, light green and
light blue accentuated by dark coloring. One of his works,
entitled Yang Memanfaatkan Sembari Merusak Lingkungan (Those
Making Use of the Environment and Destroying It, 1998), reminds
the viewer of the construction of villas in the Puncak area. As
these villas stand on land originally serving as water catchment
areas, their construction has resulted in terrible flooding.

Sunarto, meanwhile, creates decorations in his paintings with
broken, bending and curving double lines to form a particular
stylization that sometimes cuts across the expanse of color. Some
of his works seem symbolic, for example Jatayu dan Harimau (The
Eagle and the Tiger), in which he depicts a fight between an
eagle with bound legs and a tiger.

While Sunarto makes use of decoration, Suatmadji plays with
various ideas with a strong social content. These ideas are
expressed through drawings, collage, painting and installation
using oil paint, acrylic, etching, pens, wood, metal and mixed
media.

One of his works, called Wanita Menunggu Turunnya Harga
Sembako (A Woman Waiting for the Prices of Daily Necessities to
Go Down, 2001) is dominated by red and black and shows the figure
of a woman with her eyes wide open and her lips expressing
disappointment.

As for Putut, his abstract paintings are the result of his
response to nature and life. The paintings are presented in
overlapping colors of black, brown, blue, orange and white, plus
a cut to give accentuation. His latest picture, produced in 2002
and using acrylic and oil paint on canvas, is called Kantong
Hidup (Pocket of Life).

When opening the exhibition, former minister of mines and
energy in the New Order era, Subroto, noted that, even today,
unlike in dancing, Javanese literature and shadow puppetry, Solo
was yet to create its own fine arts style.

Suatmadji, responding to the criticism, said that trying to
find Solo's identity in fine arts was as difficult as trying to
find the identity of Indonesian fine arts, a topic that has long
been debated without any solution.

He added that the exhibition was not based on a "heroism"
related to the place of origin, or Surakarta, as each of the four
featured artists had tried to be honest with their own identity.

The exhibition will run through to February 28, 2002 at Galeri
Cipta II, TIM, Jl. Cikini Raya 73, Central Jakarta.