'Sagacity' leads to politics in Indonesian art

Ary Hermawan ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 12/20/2008 12:11 PM  |  Arts & Design

JIM SUPANGKAT: JP

Noted art critic Jim Supangkat argues that Indonesian art was never modernized in the way of Western art.

That, he says, is why Indonesian art tends to be political in nature, for its artists perceive art as a cultural practice that stems from their inner senses.

Speaking at a small discussion at Komunitas Salihara in South Jakarta on Tuesday, Jim proposed a new term to describe the basic character of Indonesian art: Sagacity.

He defines the word as a virtue, or personal conscience, which drives artists to produce art in various forms.

From legendary painter S. Sudjojono (born 1913) to contemporary painter Heri Dono (born 1960), art has been perceived as a path to spirituality and, moreover, an expression of virtue.

Defying the modern essentialist notions, artists were actively involved in the struggle for independence during the first decades of the 20th century, producing artwork that served as pamphlets calling for liberation, if not weapons to assault colonialism.

Art is thus seen as an means to defend the oppressed.

At the time, Sudjojono dismissed artists who shunned politics, saying that "those who have no great heart will never make a great work". At a time when politics means "struggle", indifference toward politics was considered immoral.

With PERSAGI (the Group of Indonesian Draughtsmen-Artists), which he co-founded, Sudjojono criticized the Mooi Indie paintings, which were accused of representing the feudal colonial mentality. The public was then more familiar with artists' political statements than with their artistic or aesthetic values.

Yet politics today is not the same as politics in the times of Sudjojono. As essayist Goenawan Mohamad, who participated in the discussion, said, "Politics is no longer understood as 'struggle', but as established institutions."

Jim said that, "in rhetoric, politicians claim that what they say is based on virtue. But in today's sociopolitical situation, the idea of virtue is no longer as striking as it was, and sounds more like nonsense. Virtue has lost its context."

While politics has changed, the notion of art has not.

"There has not yet been a significant change in artists' perception of art from the early 20th century until today," Jim said, arguing that the politically charged art pieces produced today were still voicing the same virtues as those Sudjojono expressed when politicians and artists were still on the same wagon.

He said the recent exhibition at Komunitas Salihara titled "Dari Penjara ke Pigura" (From Prison to Painting), for which 30 artists were asked to produce an artwork based on highly inspiring quotes by the country's heroes, proved that Indonesian artists were still inclined toward virtue, or driven by what Jim called "sagacity".

This will never be possible if they hold the true notion of fine art: that aesthetics are objective and independent from artists. According to Jim, modern art as perceived in the West is essentialist, apolitical and even immoral -- free from any subjective impositions.

He further explained that while the word "art" in English refers to "artistic objects", the Indonesian word "seni" was an abstraction of what he called "sense perception", which was formless and could only be seen when it was transformed into an "expression of art".

The modern notion of art can then only be observed in Indonesian fine art schools.

In the country's art scene in general -- especially during the Soeharto era -- artists were often torn between what was politically correct and what was aesthetically correct, said Agung Hujatnikajennong, another speaker at the discussion.

By taking the issue of art and politics to morality, Jim was suggesting that Indonesian art would distance itself from practical politics. However, he made it clear that he was not saying that artists were necessarily more angelic than politicians.

"I do not intend to say that artists' mentality and that of politicians' are like heaven and earth," he said. "They have similarities here and there."

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