It's not hard to imagine at the end of a long day some chap at the National Gallery perusing the guest book. He shakes his head at the half dozen signatures gathered there like dust. He shakes his head and wonders what then might tickle the public's interest.

If he could only get his hands on some high-brow art, on some Parisian paintings, on some Wassily Kandinskys, Hans Arp or Sonia Delaunays. Then they would line up along the street to see paintings.

It's a fantastic story. In the late 1950s, the Indonesian Embassy in Paris appealed to artists living in France to personally donate at least one of their works to the Indonesian people. One hundred works were amassed in all, including those by Gerard Schneider, Arp, Delaunay and Kandinsky.

The paintings were sent to Indonesia and exhibited in Jakarta in 1959.

They were not exhibited again for more than 30 years, after they were among the collection of the National Gallery. The 1992 exhibition, titled "Paris-Jakarta" was opened by the then chief editor of The Jakarta Post, Raymond Touran.

Touran said, as quoted by the Post in its Dec. 11, 1992 edition, that in 1990 the painter Siti Adiyati Subangun had "discovered" the paintings in a corner of the museum.

"These gifts are extraordinary gifts," Touran said in his opening speech, "They are a collection of paintings from a number of artists who are now recognized as the world's great artists..."

Restoration of the works was carried out for the 1992 exhibition by two French restorers.

Today, in 2008, the French Cultural Center in Jakarta and the National Gallery are presenting 55 of these works, together with the work of 16 leading Indonesian artists today and five of the best Indonesian art school students. Also exhibited are Indonesian paintings from the 1950s and 1960s.

The show was curated by Rizki A. Zaelani.

Many of the works made by today's generation of Indonesian artists draw directly from the French works.

The form of Budi Adi Nugroho's wood and resin figurine titled Tibet .. Tibet .. Tibet.. (you see it, you don't *8) was inspired by the work of the French painter, colorist and theorist Charles Lapicque.

Lapicque's painting is of an angel poised over the rooftops; Budi's is of Tintin, dressed in the dark red robe of a Tibetan monk, and his canine companion Snowy.

You either get it, or you don't.

There are some stunning works from among the contemporary Indonesian artists, though this idea of borrowing from the French masters seems clumsy in some instances. Somewhat simplistic.

Others artists offer a more subtle interpretation of the works. Noteworthy is Paul Kadarisman's tryptich of digital prints, Tidak Ada Judul (There is No Title) of a turquoise hose cutting across mown lawn, as if it were a lifeline. In the central print, the hose wriggles and loops across a lawn, the foreground to a valley of lush, mist-shrouded trees.

This is inspired by the prints of Anna-Eva Bergman whose geometric forms encounter free lines -- fleeting shafts, incisions of light -- that give the forms movement.

Also inspired by Bergman is the work Paris-Java by Hardiman Radjab. He displays at eye level a leather suitcase -- its luggage tags indicating its arrival in Jakarta -- that is tilted to reveal an opening at one end. Rather like looking into a pin-hole camera. At the far end, inside the suitcase are scratched lines that are illuminated from behind so that they appear as golden gouges: hence a drawing of the Eiffel Tower, surrounded by lines like fireworks, depicting a celebration of Paris.

I Hermawan Tanzil's Noir Sur Noir, a collage/digital print, is a chic work -- Paris chic -- of cut-out figures in black, white and gray, each one carrying a little bit of "fine print", be they patterns, fingerprints or illustrations.

Of the French works, all of which are exhibited in the back rooms of the gallery, the mighty question is where to begin, they are all so thrilling to behold.

There are Kandinsky drawings, funky/needle-sharp geometric shapes in black ink against paper that is brown, water-stained, buckled under the glass.

The charcoal thickets of line of Hartung Hans' drawings are smudged and filled with the glory of free line, of movement, and are a general celebration of drawing, taking it back to its absolute basics .

A delicious Jean Le Moal work, a dabbling of blue, pink and warm red that jettisons subject altogether in favor of color form.

There are also works by the supreme colorist Sonia Delaunay, who had a far-reaching impact on the worlds of art, design and fashion and is credited with taking Cubism off the stage and into the streets.

She entered the domain of couture, drawing the prints of Coco Chanel. Her geometric patterns were printed by a French silk manufacturer. Her influence is perhaps most notable in Harry Darsono's work Eye Opener, which comprises of three lengths of silk that float poetically down from the ceiling.

Gossamer thin, the material is boldly patterned with geometrics, as well as fluid tendrils and vines that are unmistakably Versace, and through it can be seen the paintings of Indonesian artists from the 50s and 60s that are positioned on a far wall.

Among this cluster of works is 4 Wajah (4 Faces) by Abas Alibasyah, a rich and glossy oil painting that is in places built up through the application of gauze giving it the look of traditional textiles or even of stained glass.

There also is an oil painting by Erna G. Pirous -- the colors of pumpkin, leaf green, tomato red -- natural and of the earth, an abstract work that has a cyclical feel to it and is titled Kemarau Mendtang (The Coming Dry Season).

"De Paris A Jakarta", offering the rare chance to see the works of French masters in Jakarta and also enabling the investigation of their influence on the work of Indonesian artists, both past and present, is an extraordinary exhibition and a gift for the ages.

"De Paris A Jakarta"

April 30-May 13

National Gallery

Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur

No. 14A, Central Jakarta

For more information, contact

the French Cultural Center on (021) 390 8585

www.ccfjakarta.or.id

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