The First Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Srihadi Soedarsono was born in 1931 in Solo (Surakarta), Java, Indonesia, into a family of batik makers. He was fourteen when he joined student troops in 1945 to fight the Dutch. In 1953he enrolled at the Department of Fine Arts at Bandung Technical Faculty, University of Indonesia to study painting. He graduated in 1959, joined the painting studio as an instructor, andworked as a professional painter in Bandung. In 1960-62, he undertook a Master's Degree at Ohio State University in the United States. In the early 1980s he built a studio in Bali, and now works regularly in both Bandung and Bali. He became a professor in the Department of Fine Art, Bandung Institute of Technology in 1993, and today is highly re­ garded within art academies as well as being one of the best known artists in Indonesia. In addition to holding solo exhibitions in Indonesia, Australia, the Netherlands, Poland, Germany and Japan, Srihadi Soedarsono has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Indonesia and overseas, including China, the United States, Brazil, Bahrain, Germany, Singapore and other ASEAN countries. His many awards include the National Art Award for Contemporary Art, Jakarta, 1971; an Australian Government Cul­ tural Award, 1973; a Netherlands Government Cultural Award, 197 7; and the Jakarta Art Council Best Painting Award, 1987. Traditional Javanese culture has been a central aspect of Srihadi Soedarsono's art since early childhood, when he learned Javanese aesthetics through practising the traditional art of batik making. His family taught him traditional Javanese ethics and philosophy: 'Aesthetics related to ethics and beauty as its result, serves the good of theworld'. In Javanese understanding, art is a kind of sensitivitywhich can lift the value of a functional object to a higher function related to communication and spiritual values. Although Srihadi Soedarsono has ex­ plored modern art concepts and practice, this Javanese aesthetic perception has re­ mained central to his creation of art. For him, painting is an individual expression of inner feelings within a context of spirit-a form of contemplation that includes meditation. Explaining his belief, he has said, 'This concept of art strongly contrasts with many Western art theories in which art is often supposed to raise questions rather than provide answers'. His encounter with modern art came in INDONESIA SRIHADI SOEDARSONO Horizon 1992 Oil on canvas 97x165cm Collection: Private collection the 1940s when he joined the struggle for Indonesian independence as a young artist. Since the camera at that timewasstill a luxury for guerilla troops, most revolutionary publications used documentary drawings as illustrations. Srihadi Soedarsono's posters attracted attention through the design skills learned from batik making and a sense of beauty which went beyond the angry propagandising which dominated most revolutionary posters of the time. As well as using revolutionary subject matter, hepainted landscapes, townscapes and figures, es­ pecially dancers. Besides painting portraits of Indonesian politicians, hesketched the Dutch officers who organised peace talks with the Indonesian guerillas. Many show a spirit of humanism. T he expressionist approach which he learnedfromestablished artists in this period has remained basic to his art, apart from a short period related to his study in the United States in the early 1960s in which he pro­ duced expressive, abstract paintings and was interested inactionpainting. He then returned to figurative paintings, creating figures and objects through expressive lines and brush­ strokes. Increasingly, he has tried to find an essential minimal touch. 19 A sense of contemplation can be felt in all of his work after the 1960s. He paints nature, figures (especially Balinese dancers) and, most commonly, seascapes. In these, he pays little attention to the sky and the land, but concentrates his search on the horizon's line by using minimal brushstrokes and pure colours. For Srihadi Soedarsono, the horizon is the basis of his expression and contem­ plation, a symbol not only of natural balance but also of inner transcendence. Jim Supangkat