TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Art for charity
The auction, themed “Spirituality in Art,” will take place on May 7 at Ciputra Artpreneur Gallery in Jakarta.
Celestial Cartographic Table, silkscreen on brass, by Nurrachmat Widyasena (Lawangwangi Creative Space Bandung/File)
A
n upcoming charity auction of modern and contemporary works aims to help the poor while at the same time showcasing an exciting diversity.
The charity auction initiated by the YPM Salman Foundation for the development of education and health and ArtSociates Indonesia, which promotes talented artists, is being planned to raise funds to assist the poor through the construction of the Salman Hospital in Soreang, South Bandung.
The auction, themed “Spirituality in Art,” will take place on May 7 at Ciputra Artpreneur Gallery in Jakarta.
Some 40 to 50 artworks to be auctioned were displayed at Lawangwangi Creative Space in Bandung late April and will be previewed on May 5 and 6 at Artpreneur before the May 7 auction.
The choice of participants in this exhibition shows an exciting diversity — with painters being a major part. They also include photographers, silkscreeners and many more.
The works come from the most senior artists to the emerging and the in-betweens.
Read also: Artists connecting the dots in Bandung Drawing Festival 2017
They are Ahmad Sadali, AD Pirous, Ahadiat Joedawinata, Amrizal Salayan, Dadan Setiawan, Dikdik Sayahdikumullah, Eddy Susanto, Erna Pirous, Etza Meisyara, Guntur Timur, Imam Choirul B., Iman Sapari, Irmana A. Rahman, John Martono, Maharani Mancanagara, Melati Suryodarmo, Mujahidin Nurrahman, Nasirun, Nurrachmat Widyasena, Patriot Mukmin, Reggie Aquara, Rosid, Sunaryo, Tisna Sanjaya, Umi Dahlan, Yogie Achmad Ginanjar and Zico Albaiquni.
As curators Asmudjo Jono Irianto and Dwihandono Ahmad note in their curatorial essay, spirituality is not always linked to religion or religiosity, but can also be interpreted as being transcendental, sublime, or an awareness at a more intense level. In a number of cases, abstract art linked to spirituality was considered the beginning of Islamic art in Indonesia.
Ahmad (1924-1987), who is considered the father of abstract art in Indonesia, has works that are often linked to Islamic art. The lec- turer at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) has also widely influenced his students, such as Umi (1942-2009) whose abstract forms in her paintings echo the master, though she was also led by her personal life experience and developed a personal touch in her use of colors.
Then there is Pirous (born 1933), known as the first artist in Indonesia to have developed Arabic calligraphy in painting and graphic art, while later tending to abstract art that is infused with a sense of the spiritual.
Read also: The meaningful beasts
In the exhibition, Sunaryo (born 1943) who during four decades proved himself to be a versatile artist with works in both realistic and abstract modes, including installations, offers a painting emanating a confluence of the spiritual with the poetic rhythm. A younger artist of this type is Dikdik with his typical dark and mysterious ambience.
As noted by the curators, spirituality can take many different understandings, including highlighting actual and political thought-provoking issues, as shown by the work of Mujahidin who refers to the issue of religious scapegoating.
There are also Maharani, whose interest in history often refers to education in colonial times, Melati, known for her exceedingly strong resilience in performances of long duration, and Etza, who made a mark with her work inspired by the blind.
Others include Eddy, whose juxtapositions of cultural and mythical verities from his Javanese culture and those from faraway countries come together in a confluence of sameness in spite of geographical and time differences, and Nurrachmat, whose outer space imaginings and futuristic visions bring together the present time with the distant future.
Surely every work offered in this auction has an interesting narrative emanating a spiritual force of its own.
Most noteworthy is the inclusion of Erna’s fascinating painting featuring the Earth mirrored in the night glow of the Moon, revealing her depth of thought and painterly skill. An artist in her own right, she has rarely appeared in the open.
Another interesting feature in the auction is the appearance of works by Tisna with those of his daughter’s Etza and his son’s Zico, each infused with a spirituality that are typically their own.
