Buy local – before it
goes global
Next time you’re shopping for something to cover plaster
blisters on the wall consider contemporary Indonesian art.
Prints of stallions pounding through the surf (much beloved
by a certain class of businessman) and the inevitable pale-skinned nymphs
cheerfully harvesting rice under a furnace sun may be risk-free choices because
they’re everywhere.
To really stand out take a look at where the young palettes
are pointing.
Like Nugroho Wijayatmo, whose powerful and enigmatic
portraits of women’s faces will attract more attention than any clichéd picture
of a pool of colorful koi.
Diligently enquiry is needed to find his work. Try Singapore,
then Taiwan, even Europe. If that’s
too difficult, seek a simple furniture-free house down a gang on the outskirts
of Yogya, narrower than a cab.
Not that many try because few know where he lives and works,
or, sadly, care.
”Indonesians find it difficult to interpret paintings,”
Nugroho said. “Overseas it’s easier to
value and appreciate art. One reason is
because it’s not a topic taught in our schools.
“I’ve had few exhibitions in Indonesia, though one in
Jakarta next year is being planned.
There are so many good artists here (in Yogya) but they are not getting
the publicity. My agents are all
overseas.”
Originally from Bengkulu in Sumatra, Nugroho’s early life mirrored
that of so many creative young people battling common perceptions that
archipelagic artists may not starve in garrets, but they’re likely to go hungry
in a bamboo shack.
His mother taught Indonesian, his father was a public
servant; their son didn’t want to his Dad into uniformed oblivion or become a
lawyer or doctor. Status and money were
not the issue.
“I just wanted to draw,” he said. “So did my father who used to copy images
from diorama of Indonesian revolutionaries defeating Dutch colonialists. I was more interested in features, emotions
and character.”
In 1999, aged 19 and alone, he moved to Yogya with a bag full
of his self-taught art. It took only two
examinations of the lad and his portfolio by the admissions committee of the
prestigious Institut Seni Indonesia
(ISI) (Indonesian Institute of Fine Arts) to be convinced the man had the spark
that might ignite.
Most candidates undergo five tough trials to test their
worth.
“At that time it was very difficult to get into ISI,” he
said. “My work was mainly still life and sketches. In class I was inspired by my teacher, Edi
Sunaryo.
“I discovered artists
like Salavor Dali (the surrealist Spanish artist) and the poetry of Chairil
Anwar.” A large portrait of Dali by
Nugroho has just been sold to a Singapore couple where it dominates their flat.
Anwar was a prominent and prolific writer of Generation 1945.
His work stressed individualism and was
often bleak.
Yet these influences aren’t apparent in Nugroho’s work where
inquiry trumps anger. It’s exploratory
and analytical, inviting rather than confronting, more like the work of another
unlikely hero - the 19th
Century Pre-Raphaelite English painter of wistful women, John William
Waterhouse. He also featured large
canvases.
Nugroho is friendly, low key – and cautious. For the past two years he’s been a full-time
professional artist earning serious money abroad but asked that figures not be
quoted for fear of arousing jealousy. A
recent Taiwan auction would have helped pay for his motorbike and much of a new
house.
He got into the overseas galleries through introductions
from another accomplished Yogya portraitist with a realistic pop-art style, Dani ‘King’ Heriyanto.
But Singapore agent Watson Tan, who handles the work of both
men, warned that the market was tough and crowded and “only the fittest will survive.”
“Some artists are too demanding with prices even when they
are young,” he said. “They need collectors to start their careers. Collectors
or art agents these days are not naive about pricing.” To tell it straight, greed kills.
Nugroho’s only social
comment was to deplore the anti-pornography laws which he claimed are curbing
creativity.
The more significant impact on his style came from Sunaryo,
a hard- edge painter and teacher at ISI, this year (2012) awarded a doctorate
for his contribution and scholarship. His art has been widely sold overseas,
though Nugroho’s work has yet to venture into the abstract world of his
teacher.
“There are two types of artist,” said Nugroho. “Those who copy and those who use their
imagination. I can copy, but I’m not
very good. Sometimes I use a model,
other times not. The inspiration can
come from anywhere.”
Although unmarried he seems to understand some of the complex
emotional inter-twinings of intimate relations.
“I like to paint the faces of women, they show so many
conflicting moods,” he said. “Her face
may be sad but her heart happy. It’s
very complicated. The emotions of men can be read more clearly.
“I sketch the original idea on the floor (he has no easel),
then start to fill in with acrylic and water, layer by layer, sometimes up to seven,
and then at times finishing in oil. I
think my technique is unique.”
In his village studio he’s still struggling to get two
three-square meter canvases just right.
Both are of strong women, perhaps in their 30s whose faces seem to tell
stories of experience and regret, yet tinged with remembered happiness.
A veil of horizontal lines, as though raining in one
portrait, and a light horizontal mesh of twigs on the other, adds impact. There’s sex aplenty, but not the sort that
would arouse fundamentalists more concerned with body parts than soul.
“I want my work to be realistic, but decorative,” he said. “I’m
still developing. I fear getting
stagnant if I stick to one technique. I
want the viewer to experience the emotion.”
Commented Watson Tan: “I do see Nugroho as a young emerging
young artist on the Indonesian contemporary art scene. I would love to see his work having deeper
emotions which Nugroho will develop throughout the years.” (First published in The Jakarta Post 15 January 2013)
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