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span class="inline inline-left">JP/Novia D. Rulistia It has been more than two decades since the passing of one of Indonesia’s greatest painters, S. Sudjojono, but his brilliant artworks and thinking remain alive thanks to his wife, Rose Pandanwangi Sudjojono.

The 84-year-old seriosa singer recently talked about the greatness of her late husband, and how inspiring he was as a human being.  

In 2006, she established the S. Sudjojono Center so that people could learn more about Sudjojono.

“Besides preserving his paintings, we also want to keep everything about him in the center, like his writings and other things,” she said.

Rose said Sudjojono was not only a painter but also a thinker, so that he was often called a philosopher among Indonesian artists.  

His love and dedication to Indonesia made him a true nationalist, she added.

“He thought a lot of things about Indonesia, hoping the country could be equal with other countries. Not just that, he also had so many ideas in his mind about his family, his friends and arts, and put all that into writing,” she said.

The ideas usually came when he was in the middle of doing something, Rose said, so he usually wrote them down on whatever he could find near him, including on the back of a calendar.

Pak Djon, Rose’s affectionate term for her husband, always wrote letters to her when she was not around, and he also wrote to friends.

“I asked some of our friends who kept the letters from him to allow us to put their letters in the center. I want [the center] to be complete,” Rose said.

Rose is assisted by her children in managing the center in Ciputat, Tangerang. The center, which is still under construction, has dozens of Sudjojono’s paintings. The center aims to preserve his artworks, and it also continuously looks for the artist’s paintings that are not well kept.

Several universities and institutions have also come to the privately owned center to look for information about his artworks for their research.

Outside the center, Rose said there were around 500 paintings that were in the hands of collectors. When she and her children tried to collect images of the paintings to show in Visible Soul, an art book of Sudjojono’s paintings, many of them were found in Singapore.

“Collectors kept the real paintings in deposit boxes, and displayed only replicas,” Rose said.

Rose was born Rosalina Wilhelmina Poppeck, the daughter of a German policeman father and a Manadonese mother, in Makassar, South Sulawesi. Rose and Sudjojono first met by chance in Amsterdam in 1951 when she paid a visit to an Indonesian couple. She was ushered into the living room where a cultural delegation, including Sudjojono, from their homeland was visiting.

She met the artist again in 1954 in Jakarta, and their friendship developed into a romance despite the fact that they were both already married. Sudjojono had eight children with his first wife and Rose had three with her first husband.

They married in 1959, a year after Sudjojono divorced his first wife.

Rose has three children with Sudjojono. The artist changed Rose’s last name from Sumabrata to Pandanwangi (Fragrant Pandan). Sudjojono died of lung cancer in March 25, 1985.

Now, she has 18 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.

Although surrounded by a big family, Rose cannot help feeling lonely sometimes. She is currently living with her daughter, Maya, in Sentul, Bogor, but she will move to a home located right next to the center soon.

“My children are busy with their own families and I totally understand that. So I try my best to keep myself busy too. It’s human that I feel lonely, but I always tell myself that my job is done,” she said with a smile.

Once a month, Rose, who was a radio star, gathers with friends from college. She still reads history books despite having trouble with her eyes, plays piano and of course sings during her spare time.

“I can’t live without singing. Sometimes I don’t even realize that I’m singing, it just automatically comes out of me,” she said.

Rose no longer sings in concert, but she still performs at church and sometimes at parties.

“I often hide when I’m at a party, I just want to enjoy it and be a guest. But they always spot me and ask me to sing. Eventually I come forward and sing.”

After her performances, Rose said she usually received flowers and gifts from the organizers.

“I remember I received a lot of flowers after my farewell concert. We took them home, and Pak Djon wanted to draw those flowers,” she said.

Although that concert ended at midnight, Rose could not prevent him from drawing them immediately so the flowers’ freshness would not fade.

“When the painting was done, I saw him so happy even when he only had an hour of sleep. He did not look like someone who had stayed up all night,” she recalled.

Of all his paintings, Rose always loved the self-portraits.

“I love to see how alive and detailed his portrait paintings are,” she said.  

She asked Maya to include the painting of Ratu Aminah Hidayat, the founder of the Servicemen’s Wives Association (Persit), and the paintings of her four daughters in Visible Soul.

“They finally wanted to pose for him altogether, but as you can see, they frowned because they did not like to stay still and pose,” she said, laughing.

Besides admiring his passion for art, Rose also admires Sudjojono’s sense of humor and patience.

She said she learned a lot about being patient from her husband, and always tried to bring that value to her family.

“I used to be a very emotional person. But I am not like that anymore. I learned a lot from him about how to be patient in dealing with life,” Rose said.

Her longing for Sudjojono can be very strong sometimes. When she misses him, she lies in her bed and plays the movie of their life in her head, flipping over Visible Soul in search of something that can ease her longing.

“If he was still alive, he would turn 100 this year. We have prepared a month-long celebration to commemorate his journey in Indonesia’s art world,” Rose said.