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Titis Jabaruddin: A Stroke of Multifaceted Emotion

Play of color: A visitor looks at the works by artist Titis Jabaruddin, known for her figurative art using soft pastels that make her work both rich and subdued at the same time, on display at the Galeri Nasional Indonesia in Jakarta

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, July 13, 2016

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Titis Jabaruddin: A Stroke of Multifaceted Emotion

Play of color: A visitor looks at the works by artist Titis Jabaruddin, known for her figurative art using soft pastels that make her work both rich and subdued at the same time, on display at the Galeri Nasional Indonesia in Jakarta.

At 73, Titis Jabaruddin finds herself seeking painting techniques to better channel her emotions

The works of artist Titis Jabaruddin reflect her continuous experimentation with theme, medium and painting style over the past 50 years.

The first three decades of her career secured her place on the list of Indonesia’s top female painters. During that time, Titis was known for figurative works using soft pastels that made her work both rich and subdued.

By the end of same period she started to explore, using paper and Chinese ink to draw sketches of landmarks and people, writing poems to replace the missing color.

The period between 1996 and 2010 is marked by far and wide exploration, using various mediums such as acrylic paint, graphic and digital art and abstract painting techniques.

If the previous phase showed soft yet vibrant work, it is clear that Titis let out intense and dynamic feelings during this phase, all the while keeping her characteristic strokes.

In the past six years, Titis has returned to her old style of figurative painting, using soft pastels with theme and style that appears to have been influenced by religion.

“I miss my old style,” said Titis at Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Central Jakarta, during a recent exhibition of her works from the period between 1965 and 2016.

“I probably have more than one personality,” she quipped. “I like strong brush strokes, but I also like to see them soft and subdued. They come from two different worlds and I live in both of them.”

Her latest exhibition, “Garis Liris Titis” (Titis’ Emotional Lines) — the title of  the foreword written by fellow painter Ipong Purnama Sidhi for the catalogue of her solo exhibition at the Taman Ismail Marzuki art center in 2010 — was a retrospective of her extraordinary career.

“It has been my longtime obsession to have a solo exhibition at Galeri Nasional Indonesia, but not to show off. As an artist, I have the responsibility to show how consistent and loyal I am to my profession.”

Born in Demak, Central Java, on Jan. 2, 1943, as Titiek Sunarti, the artist spent her childhood in the nearby cities of Jepara and Kudus, where she discovered her talent for art at elementary school. She loved to draw sketches of flowers and plants.

“I’m an only child and I used to play like a boy, playing in the river and fishing. This perhaps influenced my earlier works themed fishermen and the sea,” she said.

She joined the Sanggar Saka Budaya art community in Kudus (now Sanggar Merah Putih) when she was in junior high school. Through this community she learned to develop her painting skill and was taught to play guitar and to write poetry.

“I’m not much of a musician, but I love music and string instruments. You can easily recognize this in my paintings,” she said.

Titis attended a Yogya-based Indonesian Arts Academy were she received a formal education, but grew as an artist within the Sanggarbambu art community.

Titis was the first women painter to join the Ancol Arts Market when it was established in 1979, the same year she started to actively participate in joint and or solo exhibitions that saw her journey to countries such as France, Japan, Amsterdam and Malaysia.

Titis said most of her artworks focus on women and mothers whom both bear children and earn a living for their family.

“I see them as figures with various emotions, not only as beautiful subjects,” Titis explained.

She has worked as graphic designer employed to design ads at Tempo magazine, a writer and photographer for travel magazines and once led the ads and printing division in the country’s largest distributor of business and office stationery.

But her passion for art prompted her to establish an alternative gallery for struggling artists in 1994, where she not only provided a venue but educated artists with the knowledge required to manage an exhibition.

Unfortunately, Studio Indigo did not survive and, after 20 years, Titis, her artist daughter Esti Lestari, son-in-law Ipriyanto Maryohadi and fellow artist Rip V. Dinar replaced it with Beranda Seni Indigo, and exhibition promoter and curator service which has, among others, hosted a traveling series of “Black and White” painting exhibitions.

“I still have some new techniques I want to try. Simplification, for example, and disfiguration. Painting speaks love for me. I always have this urge to paint, this passion flows continuously, like a water spring that will never run dry,” she said.

— Photos by JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak

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