Sugiyono

Sugiyono: Menanti, 2007, Acrylics on Canvas, ca. 100x150cm,
(Collection Thomas Hübner)
Sugiyono (b. 1976) is a painter from Yogyakarta, and like most Indonesian artists he graduated from the Indonesian Art Institute (ISI) in his hometown.

He participated regularly in exhibitions since 1992 and got already several prestigeous awards, and many of his works are in the hands of foreign collectors. I like his colourful surrealistic style for which this work is a good example.

Tatang Ganar and the Sanggar Pelukis Rakyat

Tatang Ganar, Untitled, 72x72 cm, Oil on Canvas, Collection Thomas Hübner


Tatang Ganar (1936-2004) was a painter from Bandung. He learned painting from Affandi, Sudarso, Hendra Gunawan and other great Indonesian painters who were like him members of the Sanggar Pelukis Rakyat (People's Painters Studio) in Yogyakarta, a group of artists that were associated with LEKRA (People's Culture Association). In many of his works - some were collected by Soekarno and Adam Malik - the life of the common people is reflected.

After Soeharto took power, many of the artists were imprisoned or even killed. Also Ganar had to spend years in prison, an experience that is the obvious inspiration for this painting. The man sitting in front of the huge keyhole sees only the boots of his guard...

The First Painting

Popok Tri Wahyudi - The Chosen, 2005, Acrylic on canvas, ca. 68x120 (Collection Thomas Hübner)




Comics and Street Art are among the major influences of contemporary art in Indonesia. One of the most influential groups in this field was the (now defunct) Apotik Komik, created in 1997 in Yogyakarta.

Yogyakarta is the art metropole of Indonesia. The most prestigeous art school, the ISI (Indonesian Institute of Art) is located there and young artists from all over the country come to the old capital of Indonesia to study. And most of them stay in Yogya afterwards. Art is therefore present in everyday life in this city, and not only in the many museums, galleries and art spaces, but also in the streets. Hundreds of mural paintings are scattered all over the city and probably I will devote a later post to these murals.

The members of Apotik Komik (Samuel Indratma, Popok Tri Wahyudi, Arie Dyanto and a few others) are now well-established artists in Indonesia and also well-known abroad.

As a person living in Yogya, I was therefore already quite familiar with the style of Apotik Komik and other street and comic artists, when I one day saw the above painting in an auction in Jakarta. It became the first artwork I bought in Indonesia.

The work is typical for the style of Popok Tri Wahyudi (Born 1973, lives in Yogya). It is strongly influenced by his comics, but compresses a whole story in just one picture. As is usual in his work, he is not so much interested in depicting individual persons, but shows more the archetypical of people by their gestures and movements, mimic or colour that is used.

The central figure, the 'Chosen' is surrounded by a group of people that react differently to his obvious suffering (or gift). The man in the blue shirt seems to be curious and is stretching his hand in the direction of the flames, like to see if they are real, or maybe in order to warm his hands. The person left to him seems to be shocked and frightened in the contrary. The other men in the background turn away their faces from the event, one of them like in embarrassement, the other one looking to the ground, but bringing also a towel that might later be used for the 'Chosen'. Also the man in front of the 'Chosen' turns away from him in order not to see his suffering. But he seems ready to help the man with the burning hands by providing a tub with water. The woman right next to the 'Chosen' is the only one that has physical contact with the chosen and tries to comfort him by touching his head who is placed in her lap.

The red colour is dominating and the impression you get looking at the painting is very strong. How would you react if you were one of the people on the painting?

A few more infos about Popok, with more of his artwork, you can find on his website (see my linklist) which hasn't been updated for quite a long time.

Recently the artist has been travelling quite a lot, e.g. he stayed at Schloss Solitude near Stuttgart/Germany as a participant of a residency programme. He published also the comic 'The Light House' in 2009 in which he is describing in a humorous form his experiences with the difficulties of multidisciplinary cooperation between artists from different cultures during his time as a Solitude stipendiary.

More infos on Popok also in the article 'The Babbling Art' (see link list).

Instead of an Introduction

Contemporary Art is not what comes to mind usually when people think about Indonesia. Most of us think of Bali, Borobudur, the incredible variety of the Indonesian fauna and flora, and maybe the excellent cuisine. But art?

Therefore it came as a surprise to me that when I moved to Indonesia (due to my work) I discovered that this country of the many thousand islands has a rich and vibrant art scene that is hardly known abroad.

I have been an art lover almost all my life, but I am an amateur (or diletant) in this field. Nevertheless I have been excessively reading about art and visiting museums and exhibitions. And in Indonesia, I became also a collector, since the prices for good art are still affordable.

To collect art has an addictive potential as every collector will confirm. Especially when you not primarily collect because art is just an investment for you, but out of enthusiasm and curiosity.

Additionally it gives you the opportunity to learn more about a country, a culture. Artists reflect in their work the history and cultural roots, but also the actual social and political developments of the society in which they are living. This is of course true also for Indonesia that has been going through exciting and sometimes difficult times in the past.

I will publish in this blog examples from my small but growing private Indonesian art collection, will provide some information on the artists, maybe also interesting exhibitions. But I will also from time to time say a few words about how you can build your own collection, where to find good art, etc.

Any feed-back from interested readers is welcome. I will be glad when my small collection finds the interest of others and when I can make a few people curious about Indonesian art.