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.
Indonesian Art 2015. The Year of 'Alon-alon, Waton, Kelakon'
The eyes: Visitors looks at works by artist Eko Nugroho on display at his Landscape Anomali exhibition at Salihara in South Jakarta
Change Size
The eyes: Visitors looks at works by artist Eko Nugroho on display at his Landscape Anomali exhibition at Salihara in South Jakarta.(JP/DON) (JP/DON)
The eyes: Visitors looks at works by artist Eko Nugroho on display at his Landscape Anomali exhibition at Salihara in South Jakarta.(JP/DON)
Most people working in the world of visual arts, particularly the art market, would agree that 2015 was a rather 'slow' year, even compared to the preceding years, which were also far from 'fast'.
'This year, art auctions seemed rather slow because the economy was weakening. I predict that this will continue next year,' said John Andreas of Borobudur, an auction house that originated in Indonesia but now only holds auctions in Singapore.
The Masterpiece/Heritage and Treasures group of auction houses, which was known to hold auctions every other week, held only 21 auctions this year, down from 24 the previous year.
Prior to November, even the auctions featuring Southeast Asian art staged in Hong Kong seemed flat. A handful of works fetched quite high prices, but many works were unsold. This seemed to be the trend overall toward the third quarter of the year.
Among the various forms of arts events, only art fairs seemed to continue to thrive this year. In January this year, four galleries attended Artstage in Singapore, a slight increase from the Indonesian participation the previous year.
Leo Silitonga, the fair director of Bazaar Art Jakarta, boasted that this year 54 galleries participated in the event, up from 35 in 2014. This year, Bazaar Art Jakarta was held in August.
Often confused with an art fair, Yogyakarta's ArtJog, which is essentially a large art exhibition organized by a single company directed by art impresario Heri Pemad, seemed even more professionally organized and featured an art installation by Yoko Ono. People flocked to the venue, even though they had pay to enter.
Not only art fairs and ArtJog were well attended. The Jakarta Biennale and the Yogyakarta Biennale that happened within weeks of each other also attracted many visitors.
'It is quite significant that art is beginning to be widely enjoyed, especially by the young who are between the age of 15 and 30 years,' observed Mella Jaarsma, the cofounder of Yogyakarta's influential Cemeti Art House.
The Dutch-born Indonesian artist found that ArtJog the Jakarta and Yogyakarta Biennales presented many new ways of artistic exploration. 'There was art in autonomous forms, art as a tool for activism and community-based art,' she observed.
For many of the visitors, however, the Jakarta Biennale seemed too literal and 'in-your-face' and therefore difficult to enjoy artistically.
With art fairs becoming more and more of the way people experience art these days, solo exhibitions are becoming less and less attractive.
Tom Tandio of Indoartnow found Dadang Rukmana's solo show at the Semarang Gallery curated by Wahyuddin last November as his favorite this year. 'We have been so focusing on trying to push the boundaries in works that give conceptual ideas, but we forget the basics of technicality. This exhibition pushes the boundaries of technicality,' he explained.
Curator Farah Wardani thought that Eko Nugroho's Landscape Anomaly exhibition curated by Nirwan Dewanto at the Galeri Salihara, also held last November, was quite impressive. 'It clearly showed his progress and professionalism as an artist,' she said.
Eko Nugroho responds to modern urban life and social political changes in society through the aesthetics of comics and street art, while his Javanese cultural roots are apparent through batik and wayang, which still become important elements in his art that appears in the exhibition in the form of sculptures, installations and murals.
'One Who Looked at the Presence', Otty Widasari's exhibition at Ark Galerie in Yogyakarta last September, curated by Manshur Zikri, impressed art promotor Natasha Sidharta, not for its sophistication but rather for its simplicity.
Otty's project involves research into the colonial archives on the early life of Dutch East Indies society in seven locations (Papua, Lembata, Toraja, Banjarmasin, Balikpapan, Central Java and Jakarta), involving photographs, film and other materials. While the idea transcends space, time and history, the execution is kept simple and sincere without any pretentious attempt to appear sophisticated.
At Christie's auction at the end of November, Rudolf Bonnet's Market Scene fetched a record price of HK$25,880,000, Lee Man Fung's Lotus Harvest was sold for HK$15,640,000 and many other pieces sold higher than their high estimates, indicating the market was picking up.
'There's been a substantive increase in new buyers,' added Christie's Jakarta representative, Charmie Hamami. So, as art fairs and biennales seemed to attract a younger audience, auction houses also attracted new clients.
For Edwin Rahardjo, the developments this year confirmed the need to solidify the country's art infrastructure. It is clear that in the past the prices of art have risen too quickly because of a lack of standards that could be established with better infrastructure. We have very few books on contemporary Indonesian art, let alone museums that properly exhibit it.
'That is why people have turned back to collecting works by old masters, which are the 'blue chip' investments of the world of art,' he said.
'Together, we need to build our art infrastructure, so that artists, gallery operators and art curators can perform more professionally in the future,' he added.
With the opening of Singapore's stately National Gallery of Art last November, Indonesian art enjoyed a respectable representation in the Southeast Asian region. It is clear Indonesia's own National Gallery needs a lot of work before it can match Singapore's. However, at least on the academic side, this year Indonesia added two other doctoral level art scholars to its modest pantheon.
Museum @ Lippo Plaza Jogja was opened in Yogyakarta last June, featuring an exhibition about Indonesia's maestro, Affandi, and his wife Maryati. It is a pilot project in preparation for a professionally run private museum to be opened in Lippo Karawaci in the not-so-distant future. Visitors to the Lippo Plaza Jogja were eager to visit the museum that was also situated in the mall, proving that more and more of the general public is indeed becoming interested in art.
At the Indonesian Art Congress held in Bandung earlier this month artists called for the establishment of an independent institution equal in standing to a governmental ministry that could ensure the development as well as preservation of art.
Specifically for the visual arts, the institution is hoped to be able to help the advancement of art education through museums and schools. People are aware of the need for the development of art infrastructure.
These days, Indonesians often misinterpret the Javanese saying 'Alon-alon, waton, kelakon' as 'Alon-alon, waton kelakon'. The latter is usually translated as simply 'slowly but surely'. Actually, the saying consists of three important aspects: first 'alon-alon', which means 'patiently and cautiously', 'waton', which means 'in accordance with the principles and rules', and 'kelakon', which signifies 'to happen and generate positive results'.
Indeed, by now we should realize that Indonesia does not need a fast-track boom in the art market, which will keep the other necessary elements of art development lagging far behind. In the long run, Indonesian art will benefit more from a slower market growth, better art schools, instructors and professors, museums and curators and, as a result of it all, better works of art and more appreciative public audience.
