In collaboration with the S. Sudjojono Center, the exhibition displays a reproduction of Sudjojono's 30-square-meter masterpiece, “Pertempuran Antara Sultan Agung dan JP Coen” (The Battle of Sultan Agung and JP Coen) (1973). The exhibition also provides a closer insight into Sudjojono's thinking and creative process through 38 sketches scattered in his books.

Sudjojono held his sketches as dearly as he did his artwork. "A sketch for me is a diary—the notes of my feelings, depiction of my thoughts, visualization of my events. Sketches are pieces of an autobiography," he said in 1981, explained Santy Saptari, Mukti Negeriku!'s curator.

Scribble of thoughts: A sketch of Kyai Rangga meeting JP Coen in Batavia on Apr. 13, 1628. Sudjojono always incorporated background data into his process before the actual painting began. (Tumurun/Courtesy of Tumurun Private Museum)

Strokes of history

Sudjojono, who was born in 1913 and died in 1986, is often considered Indonesia's “father of modern painting” by artistic and historical communities. Ali Sadikin, Jakarta’s former governor, in 1974 commissioned “Pertempuran Antara Sultan Agung dan JP Coen” for the inauguration of the Jakarta History Museum. It is today considered a historical masterpiece.

The painting comprises three sequences, spread across three connecting panels.