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Jakarta Post

Hendra Gunawan: Prisoner of hope

A grand exhibition presents the most extensive collection of works by the artist, including some that have never been shown to the public before.

Carla Bianpoen (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, August 14, 2018

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Hendra Gunawan: Prisoner of hope Menyisir Sambil Menyusui (Brushing while breastfeeding) by Hendra Gunawan (Ciputra Artpreneur and Museum/File)

H

endra Gunawan’s exhibition, titled “Prisoner of Hope” at Ciputra Artpreneur Gallery and Museum in Jakarta, is hailed as the centenary exhibition in celebration of the grand master of modern art.

Hendra continued painting while incarcerated. He actually painted life, never giving up hope. That is why the exhibition is titled “Prisoner of Hope”, explained businessman Ciputra, who is considered to have the largest collection of works by Hendra Gunawan.

It is almost unbelievable that the works with their vibrant colors were created from inside a prison cell.

They are awe inspiring — his glowing colors, his elongated shapes and the sense of motion in his works evoke a narrative beyond the usual.

Very special are also his iconic female figures with their protruding necklines and fishlike tails, painted in a style between the real and the surreal. They may well make us imagine legendary mermaids stepping out of the blue waters of fairy tales.

Some may be reminded of French painter Paul Gauguin, who sought to enrich his artistic vocabulary with exotic and color experiments in French Polynesia, but of course Hendra’s brushstrokes with an ever-present sense of dynamic motion are distinctly different.

If most of his female figures appear forever twisting, his landscapes too are infused with seemingly strong winds sweeping over a canal and causing the tree in Pemandangan Danau II (Lake View II) to bow to the left.

Pangeran Diponegoro Terluka (Wounded Prince Diponegoro) by Hendra Gunawan
Pangeran Diponegoro Terluka (Wounded Prince Diponegoro) by Hendra Gunawan (Ciputra Artpreneur and Museum/File)

Such a notion is also tangible in Menangkap Kupu-kupu (Capturing a Butterfly), where the elongated shape of a woman as well as a child appear in the act of movement. Such concepts are also revealed in a large-scale painting featuring commotion around the wounded hero Diponegoro.

With a keen eye for village life, a great amount of Hendra’s paintings are about the lives of little folks, which endeared him as the people’s painter.

Vignettes of their harsh lives and hard work denote the working class, like feet with widely spread toes and the palms of their hands with widely spread fingers.

But his paintings on display at the exhibition, curated by Agus Dermawan T. and Aminudin TH Siregar, also show the leisurely character of folks, with women calmly picking lice from each others’ scalp or nursing a baby, like in Mengkutu (Tick) or Menyisir sambil Menyusui (Brushing while Breastfeeding), respectively.

Ciputra, trained as an architect, is also a major art collector. He is considered to have the largest collection of works by Hendra. “I felt immediately attracted to his paintings,” Ciputra said at the press conference preceding the vernissage of the exhibition.

That moment when he was first struck by one of Hendra’s paintings stretched into the rest of time, and intensified as time passed and he learned of harsh moments in Hendra’s life. “I felt we had many things in common,” Ciputra says.

Ciputra coined the term “artpreneur” for his combined passion. Whatever skill one has, there must be entrepreneurial awareness if one wants to succeed, he says.

Inventing him by Kemalezedine
Inventing him by Kemalezedine (Ciputra Artpreneur and Museum/File)

Ciputra seems to be proving what he preaches: Apart from his multiple property and education projects, he also established his Ciputra World, consisting of Ciputra Artpreneur Gallery and Museum, including an ultra-modern theater and a shopping mall plus an adjacent hotel on a 10,000-square-meter plot of land in Jakarta.

Like previous exhibitions of Hendra’s works at the Artpreneur museum, the centenary exhibition also comes with works by contemporary artists who tried to respond to the master’s oeuvre.

Curated by Rifky Effendy, the “Spektrum” exhibition features works by 70 artists who have tried their hand at responding to Hendra’s oeuvre. Of course it can’t possibly match Hendra’s genius, but the exercise is exciting and there are some works that are notable.

Some, like painters Kemalezedine and Yogie Achmad Ginanjar, come close to Hendra’s color scheme and swinging lines. Restu Taufik Akbar’s (Holy)day: Rhythmical Motion in Silence is also executed with a combination of tropical colors; Geugot Pangestu Sukandwinata worked with paper using a special technique to visualize Hendra’s life in the cell; while artist Eldwin Pradipta created a single-channel video consisting of four parts, which each present Hendra’s works under the title Reminiscent of Romanticism.

Artists Theresia Agustine Sitompul and Patricia Untario have taken to the fish that was close to the artist’s heart. Theresia formed her fish with cuttings of colored brocade and combined fiber and resin, while Patricia created a delicate work of glass and fishbone.

Meanwhile, Nasirun created a huge installation of workers’ feet at its base. But it is Muchlis Fachri’s The Ten Faces that has a fresh and comical take on one of Hendra’s paintings featuring the wayang (shadow puppets) figure of Dasamuka.

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“Spektrum” exhibition runs until Aug. 16, while “Prisoner of Hope” is part of a permanent exhibition at Ciputra Artpreneur Gallery and Museum, Jl. Prof. Dr. Satrio 3-5, Jakarta, Ph +62 21 29889889. www.ciputraartpreneur.com

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