Sari's posts with tag: karsa
Posted by Sari on Jun 8, '06 3:52 AM for everyone
When we look at the work of I Wayan Sujana more known as Suklu we saw that he begin his journey of imaginative fashion world. Suklu’s current works are like a fashion photos shoot, and his models coming from all corner of the world. He created his paintings like a fashion designer preparing his grand collection, the hats, the hair dos, the cape, the dresses, the accessories and lingerie all in a very tasteful and Suklu’s way. He is not only becoming an imaginative fashion designer but also an imaginative fashion director. Suklu’s current fashion works of arts become more urban and focusing in rich in textures and beauty.
It looks like he painted his time memories on his travelling trough foreign countries, like Italy, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand Singapore and many others big cities in many countries and also here in Indonesia. He was painting his fascinations of the people who are mostly into fashion, some are conservative some are very progressive. Some are following the local tradition some are chasing the latest trend. And it is true somehow that what we wear or our fashion is how we see our self in a whole, and that is why Suklu is plunging in to time memories and it is telling us about spiritual and empiric experience and framing it trough fashion.
He wanted to show that the fashion culture in each place could be their language that has very high aesthetics in human civilization. Especially in the urban society, they have the tendency to adopt some persona or celebrity or the style of a famous designer. And this pattern change time to time, if we calculate them mathematically, it can be fast forward to the future and going back to the past. And from this platform, as an artist, he wants to give impulse to this growing fashion.
It looked like this period he is using colour repetitive technique that produced colour textile effects. Visually colours really represent and fit perfectly if talking about fashion. It is shown that he has been using impasto technique with all kind of colours applications that seems to look like braids or plaited basket.
This technique actually start to appeared in the year of 1996 when he was on a seminar discussing the life of a very famous Balinese Man of letters Ida Pedanda Sidemen from Sanur, who’s everyday life is used as meditation, like counting ploughing the rice field, counting how many picked up fire wood, when arranging the offering of flowers every sticks is being count. This influenced Suklu in understanding more the concept of meditation; in repetition he found the meditative situation. So finally he found a technique for his work but in the same time it cleanse his soul like meditating.
Suklu live in a very strong Hindu society, with very strong religious doctrines, and as a Balinese he still have his own culture of how to dress properly. Suddenly he has the opportunity to see the world with totally different cultures. This offcourse enriched him to understand about other culture, he became less fanatic. And realized that other culture are also unique. But if he looked at the cultural mass or in modern cities around the world, they have the tendency to more progressive compared from the traditional or agrarian culture and this is very interesting, because he is now in his own grey area..
His contra to a ‘pemangku nyastra' affect his work tremendously. And this makes him able to hear the ‘bell’ everyday from this certain ‘pemangku nyastra’, the sound of this ‘bell’ is very repetitive and it inspire him to the process of his repetitive technique. And women is always part of his work, may be this is because he lost his emotional bond with his mother.
Suklu was born in Klungkung, Bali, February 6th 1967; participated the CP Open Biennale 2004 in Bangladesh, he is the recipient of the Indofood Art Award 2003, and nominee of the Philip Morris Award. He also gives lecture in STSI Denpasar, Bali.
Sari Koeswoyo & Amir Sidharta
  
Posted by Sari on May 25, '06 1:52 AM for everyone
S. Sudjojono, perupa yang kini kita kenal sebagai Bapak Senirupa Modern Indonesia, lahir di Kisaran, Sumatra Utara pada tahun 1913. Ketika itu orangtuanya bekerja sebagai karyawan perkebunan di Deli. Dalam usia yang masih sangat muda, orangtuanya menitipkan Sudjojono kecil untuk ngenger (diasuh dan dibimbing bekerja) pada seorang guru bernama Yudhokusumo. Ketika Yudhokusumo dan keluarganya hijrah ke Jakarta (ketika itu masih disebut Batavia), Sudjojono pun turut serta, dan menuntut ilmu di Sekolah Arjuna dan guru seni rupanya pada saat itu adalah Mas Pirngadi. Setelah lulus, Sudjojono melanjutkan sekolahnya ke Taman Siswa, dan juga melanjutkan studi di sekolah guru di Lembang dan Yogyakarta dan mengajar di Rogojampi, Jawa Timur.
Pada saat Sudjojono mengajar di Rogojampi, kehidupannya sangat sulit, dan ia pun kurang memperhatikan kesehatannya sehingga akhirnya ia terserang TBC dan harus kembali ke Jakarta. Akhirnya ia pun bolak-balik dirawat di sanatorium Pulau Onrust. salah sau pulau di Kepulaunan Seribu. Ketika ia kembali ke Jakarta Sudjojono belajar seni lukis pada Chiyoji Yazaki seorang perupa dari Jepang yang kebetulan sedang bekerja di sana.
Ketika Bataviasche Kunstring (Lingkar Seni Batavia) mengadakan pameran yang terbuka bagi seluruh perupa yang bekerja di Hinda Belanda di akhir tahun 1930an, karya Sudjojono terpilih untuk ikut pameran. Rasa percaya dirinya bangkit. Ternyata, karya-karya perupa Indonesia tidak kalah dari karya para perupa asing.
Pada tahun 1937, Sudjojono bersama teman-temannya mendirikan Persatuan Ahli-ahli Gambar Indonesia (Persagi). Mereka berupaya mengadakan pameran-pameran untuk menunjukan kepada khalayak ramai bahwa hasil karya perupa-perupa Indonesia tidak kalah dengan perupa-perupa asing.
Sudjojono mulai memperhatikan bahwa pelukis pelukis Mooi Indië (Hindia Molek) baik pelukis asing maupun pribumi semata-mata hanya memperlihatkan keindahan alam secara romantis. Padahal tentunya keadaan kehidupan di negeri ini pada saat itu sesungguhnya negeri ini tak seindah yang tampil dalam lukisan. Kebetulan, antara tahun 1935-1939 karya-karya perupa modern dunia, termasuk Marc Chagall, Giorgio De Chirico, Kees van Dongen, Charles Dufresne, James Ensor, Vincent van Gogh, dan bahkan Pablo Picasso, yang di miliki seorang Regnault, pengusaha cat di Surabaya sempat dipamerkan di Batavia.
Karya-karya modern itu tentu saja mempengaruhi karya Sudjojono dan rekan-rekannya. Sampailah Sudjojono pada kesimpulan bahwa senirupa seharusnya mengekspresikan kenyataan yang ada, bukan semata romantisme. Senilukis harus menunjukan jiwa sipelukis itu sendiri. “Seni lukis adalah Jiwa Ketok”, gagasnya, dan sejak saat itulah ia juga mulai menekuni seni lukis sebagai profesinya.
Walau pun karya-karya Sudjojono pada masa itu, misalnya Cap Go Meh (1940), memang cenderung sangat ekspresif, namun sebenarnya bukanlah berarti dirinya itu anti-keindahan. Lukisannya yang sangat terkenal, Di Balik Kelambu Terbuka (1939-40), memperlihatkan sosok perempuan yang mengandung banyak kesedihan dan penderitaan. Hal itu berhasil diekspresikannya dengan pengamatan psikologis yang cermat terhadap terhadap raut wajah dan jestur tubuh figur yang dilukisnya, namun ia pun sangat memperhatikan unsur estetika dalam penciptaan citra tersebut. Jadi, dalam keindahan karya itu, kita dapat melihat pula keadaan diri sebenarnya dari figur yang dilukis.
Di masa pendudukan Jepang Sudjojono menikah dengan Sasmiya “Mia” Sasmojo dan bersama reka-rekan Persagi aktif dalam Lembaga Kebudayaan Keimin Bunka Shidoso juga aktif memberikan banyak pelatihan pada para pelukis muda.
Sudjojono pindah ke Madiun pada saat pecah perang revolusi, dan bersama rekan-rekan lain ia mendirikan Seniman Indonesia Muda (SIM). SIM lalu pindah ke Solo untuk lebih mendekat ke pusat pemerintahan Yogyakarta. Selain sebagai pelukis Sudjojono juga terkenal sebagai kritikus seni dan pada saat inilah kumpulan tulisannya diterbitkan di Yogyakarta dalam sebuah buku yang amat sederhana.
Dengan kelompok SIM nya, Sudjojono mendokumentasikan perjuangan melalui seni lukis dengan peralatan yang amat sangat terbatas. Sudjono melukis “Kawan-Kawan Revolusi” yang memperlihatkan potret-potret para pejuang, yang termasuk di dalamnya rekan-rekan yang tergabung dalam SIM. Lukisan ini sekarang berada dalam koleksi Presiden Soekarno.
Keluarga Sudjojono pindah ke Yogyakarta dan menetap di dekat desa Prambanan. Saat terjadi clash ke dua di akhir tahun 1948 keluarga mereka terkena serangan dan pada saat ayah Sudjojono mencoba melarikan diri, ia tertembak dan wafat. Keadaan yang sangat memukul itu membuat Sudjojono kembali memikirkan keseniannya. bahwa untuk menunjukan kenyataan pahit dengan sebenar-benarnya ia harus berpaling ke Realisme.
Pada tahun 1949, Trisno Sumardjo menulis artikel tentang Sudjojono dan menjulukinya “Bapak Seni Lukis Indonesia”, namun tak lama kemudian kritikus seni itu pun mempertanyakan Realismenya. Memang saat Sudjojono beralih ke Realisme banyak orang berpikir bahwa ini diakibatkan oleh kedekatannya dengan kaum sosialis dan komunis dan Realisme Sosial mereka.
Sudjojono di awal 1950an memang memperlihatkan perkembangan dan ketekunannya dalam teknis melukis realistis.
Namun terpilih menjadi anggota Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat di tahun 1955, ia menelantarkan dunia seni lukisnya. Walaupun akhirnya is sadar bahwa politik bukanlah dunianya, ia sudah kehabisan inspirasi, potret orang–orang yang dilukisanya menjadi sangat membosankan karena hanya mengandalkan teknis yang tinggi saja, dan seolah kehilangan “jiwa”nya.
Pada saat Sudjojono berpergian ke Eropa di awal 1950an, ia berkenalan dengan Rosalina (Rose) Poppeck yang pada saat itu tinggal di Belanda. Mereka pun bertemu kembali di Jakarta dalam sebuah Konferensi Perdamaian. Rose, seorang biduan mezzo-sopran yang cantik, ternyata membangkitkan kembali inspirasi Sudjojono untuk melukis. Karya-karyanya mengalami perubahan, sebagaimana dapat terlihat dalam karya Piano di tengah Reruntuhan (1956) yang simbolistis. Di tengah kekacauan dan kebingungan, sebuah piano menanti untuk dimainkan. Sudjojono menunjukan kemahirannya melukis karya-karya menarik dalam kanvas-kanvas besar. Hubungan antara Sudjojono dan Rose pun mulai bersemi menjadi bunga-bunga asmara. Dan ketika dia diancam diberhentikan sebagai anggota DPR karena hubungan samaranya, ia memilih Rose. Dan dia memutuskan untuk ‘meraih hari ini’ atau ‘carpe diem’ melalui lukisan Sodom dan Gomorah(1956).
Mereka bercerai dengan pasangan masing-masing dan menikah di tahun 1959. Sejak itu Sudjojono berkonsentrasi melukis keindahan-keindahan di sekitarnya. Kehidupannya sehari-hari dengan Rose dan anak-anaknya sering menjadi subyek utama dalam lukisannya.
Sejak menantikan anak pertama mereka Rosalina diberi nama Rose Pandanwangi. Dan pada awal tahun 1959 Rose memenangkan sayembara Bintang Radio Republik Indonesia, dan sejak itu Rose aktif berkonser. Bunga-bunga yang diterima oleh Rose sering dijadikan subyek oleh Sudjojono. Ketika menyanyikan The Lord’s Prayer sosok Rose dilukiskan bukan hanya sangat indah tapi juga dengan ekspresi keheningan jiwa sang penyanyi dalam melantunkan pujiannya kepada Yang Maha Kuasa. Selain Rose istrinya, Maya anak bungsu mereka paling sering dijadikan model untuk karya lukisnya.
Sudjojono juga sering menggambarkan pemandangan, apakah itu pemandangan dari kehidupan nyata dilihatnya ketika bepergian bersama keluarga atau sahabat-sahabatnya, atau pun pemandangan imaginer dari khayalan dan kenangannya Pemandangan imaginer lain seringkali muncul dalam latar belakang lukisan-lukisan portret yang digambarkannya. Di latar belakang kaya Zaman Emas yang merupakan portret simbolis yang menampilkan sosok Maya, anaknya, Sudjojono menggambarkan “Istana-istana Impian” yang menurutnya hanya dapat dihadirkan dalam lukisan dan belum mungkin dapat ia berikan dalam kenyataan.
Beberapa pemandangan yang dihasilkannya menampilkan sosok perempuan di tepi danau atau laguna berbukit, menatap ke arah laut menantikan kedatangan kapal. Pemandangan romantis itu, ternyata terinspirasi oleh kisah tragis opera Madame Butterfly karya Puccini di mana mantan geisha Cio-cio San menantikan kembalinya kekasihnya Kapten Angkatan Laut Amerika Serikat Pinkerton. Rose Pandanwangsi memang pernah menjadi diva dalam opera tersebut dan bahkan Sudjojono sempat menggambarkan beberapa set panggung tentang opera itu.
Sudjojono tetaplah seorang yang optimis walaupun terkadang karya-karyanya terkesan sinis dan dan kadang-kadang dengan peka ia membuat pernyataan-pernyataan yang cukup kritis melalui karya-karya seninya. Ia membuat beberapa lukisan yang merupakan komentar sosial terhadap kehidupan masyarakat Indonesia. Dengan deformasi ia bebas mengubah bentuk figur-figur sosok dan tokoh yang dilukisnya. Hal itu tercermin dalam dua karyanya. Yang pertama, Si Optimis merupakan potret dirinya yang dibuat secara cukup realistik. Di tangan kanannya tergenggam bunga mawar sebagai lambang dari Rose istrinya dan keluarganya serta kuas sebagai lambang dari seni lukis, profesinya. Karya yang kedua, Sip Dalam Segala Cuaca, menampilkan sosok yang terdeformasi mengendarai sepeda dengan payung di tangan yang satu, sementara dengan penjepit di tangan yang lain ia mengambil puntung rokok. Di atas kepala sosok itu, terdapat botol yang di atasnya terdapat beberapa lambang: Rose, Maya, pohon randu dan “Istana Impian” Sudjojono. Sebagai seniman, tanggung jawab yang berat membahagiakan keluarganya, dipikulnya dengan senang hati.
Dua karya di atas memperlihatkan luasnya kemahiran senirupa Sudjojono. Karyanya ada yang realis dan serius serta yang ekspresif dan sinis atau pun jenaka. Sebenarnya sudah melukis di antara dua kutub ini sejak akhir tahun 1930an, sebagaimana dapat kita lihat dalam karya Cap Go Meh dan Di Balik Kelambu Terbuka. Namun, tentunya dalam perjalanan karirnya sebagai pelukis selama lebih dari setengah abad, ia sudah lebih jauh lagi berkembang.
Amir Sidharta - Sari Koeswoyo
 
Posted by Sari on Feb 20, '06 10:29 PM for everyone Stefan Buana
Struggling with Experimentation, Fighting for Rights
As a son of a naval officer, young Stefan Buana never thought that one day he is going to be a painter. Born in 1971, as he grew up in Padang Panjang he always thought that he would follow his father’s footsteps and also become enlisted with the marines. It was not until he was in 3d grade in junior high that he started to think otherwise.
At the time, noticing the young man’s artistic talents, his drawing teacher encouraged him to continue drawing. Coincidently, Stefan’s passion in art was also passed on from his father who always wrote and drew sketches of his experiences travelling the world with the navy. A sketch of a female nude inside his father’s journal fascinated little Stefan and remained vivid in his memory. It was his father who ‘introduced’ him to Picasso, Henry Moore, Paul Gauguin, and even most of Stefan’s knowledge of art.
After graduating from junior high school, Stefan continued on to the Sekolah Menengah Seni Rupa/ SMSR, an art high school in Padang. In this school he learnt more about the realist styles of Dullah and Basoeki Abdullah and also the style of Wakidi, a native Sumatran landscape painter. The objects of their artworks were mostly landscapes and objects of nature. Other than that, Arabic calligraphy was one of the subjects in school that was compulsory.
Yet, experimenting with colours was the most favourable pastime in during his childhood. He found out that there is more in black than just plain black. When he was drawing with charcoal that was made out different materials, such as coconut shell or various kinds of woods, he saw that black has more than one shade colours, there are brownish, reddish, even greenish kinds of black. And if mixed with cooking oil, it produces yet another, different, kind of black.
Because his parents did not have money to put him to collage, Stefan wondered to Jakarta and ended up in Bali for a year. He was still yearning to enter the Institute Seni Indonesia/ISI (Indonesian Art Institute) in Yogyakarta. Learning that some of his friends were already living in Yogya, with a very small amount of money and a whole bunch of courage, he went to Yogya. Borrowing his friends’ money, he enrolled himself to ISI and passed the admission test.
Stefan learnt so much in Yogya, not only in college, but also on the streets of Malioboro. He learnt that being a street painter was very hard. He experienced the joy and the pain. How he felt happy when he was drawing a nice, beautiful and generous girl, how he felt very lousy when he had to draw a very stingy old lady who loved to bad-mouth and was bad-looking as well. Drawing sketches of people having eating supper using low tables, seated on the floor, in the typical ‘lesehan’ style of Yogya streets, needed extra skills. Stefan had to sketch faster and capture more accurately the character of the subjects, especially when the subject is a child who did not stop moving around. Yet that was where Stefan met all his challenges; he had to draw in the noisy, packed and dimmed lighted place and still capture the character of his object. He did all that in order to be able to pay his tuition. Every day, he started past seven o’clock every day until dawn. Finally he stoped because he worried about his own health.
Due to his limited knowledge about art, during the time he stayed in Bali and also in Yogya, he found it very difficult to accept styles other than realism. When he met other student from Bali during admission test, he realized that these Balinese have the ability to draw sketches with more character, expressive and spontaneous. Most of the Sumatran students were shocked with this kind of style, their strength was the regularity of form instead of spontaneous expression. Yet, again it gave Stefan a great deal of new experience.
Experimenting is part of his creativity. From his experiments he discovered his own techniques, which he called ‘fake craquelure’ and ‘rough craquelure’. One of his techniques was accidentally discovered as he was applying a layer of paint over another layer nearby a stove and the ‘rough craquelures’ started to form. He became very proud every time his teachers and fellow students admired and touched his painting to feel the ‘cracks’ in his artwork.
In creating his artworks, Stefan tries to be honest to his inspirations or the concept art itself. His works talk about the life realities, from the lower classes to the bourgeoisie. Sometimes his works are his own interpretation and fantasy of animal life.
His works developed parallel to his maturity in painting. In 1995 he experimented with mixed media, goat horn, wood and acrylic, rough woven goni cloth and created Semangat Tempur I & II (“War Spirit I & II”). In 1996 he created other ‘bizarre’ works using acrylics and mixed media on canvas among others Sosok Dalam Puing (“A Figure in the Debris”) and Obsesi (“Obsession”) that became the collection of the Taman Budaya Padang (the Padang Art Center).
With its strong character and personal style, in 1998 Stefan’s work was selected as best work in the ISI’s ‘dies natalis’ and the Refleksi Zaman (“Reflection of an Era”) exhibition at Fort Vredeburg in Yogya. Both of the works were done using his ‘charcoal’ technique because he didn’t have any money to buy more painting materials. His works in 1999 grew stronger in character and became more cynical towards life’s reality in Indonesia. Di Bawah Naungan Kaki (“Under the Protection of the Foot”) and Dialog Wong Cilik (“The Common People’s Dialogue”) reminds us about how people are being suppressed by the power that has no shame at all. These two works are using charcoal and rough in texture. Most of his works in 2000 and later were using fake and rough craquelure technique. Umar Bakrie, a painting inspired by song with the same title by Iwan Fals, a ballade singer who liked social themes, was one of them.
Stefan’s most current paintings, which are to be shown at the Mitra Hadiprana in Kemang this month are so different from his previous works. His homeland, West Sumatera has provided the inspiration for his paintings. The use of bright colours and simple forms offer a breath of freshness and shows more happy side of Stefan. Stefan tried to show life in a village in Padang that has Javanese influence in his Kampuang Nanden Cinta where roofs of the houses are pitched like other roofs on Java. The girl next door with her traditional dress and a ‘tangkulak tanduak’ a headdress that looks like a buffalo horn give him an inspiration for Gadih Minang. Meanwhile, in Rumah Bakincia, a house with water mill used to mill rice and other spices can be seen. Although there is a noticeable difference, especially in theme and approach, his most recent works work are still filled with social and political criticism. This can be seen in Garuda Terbang Ateh Mak, or Gajah Mada. Somehow it seems that he tried to trace childhood memories through his paintings. Overall they seem rather comical and fun, similar to the works he developed around 1999, especially Hampir Malam di Yogya (“Almost Night Time in Yogya”).
Stefan Buana, who one day dreamed of becoming an naval officer, has instead chosen to become a warrior of art. He continues to struggle with his experiments in developing new techniques to create new works, fighting for his right and the rights of others through various oils on canvases as well as through other media.
Sari Koeswoyo and Amir Sidharta
  
| |
