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Eternal love for Indonesia: Knowing Sultan Agung through S. Sudjojono's strokes
Art exhibition Mukti Negeriku! highlights the creative processes behind a lasting masterpiece that narrates history.
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Packed with history: Mukti Negeriku!: The Battle of Sultan Agung is being held at Tumurun Private Museum, Surakarta, Central Java, in collaboration with the S. Sudjojono Center. (Tumurun/ Courtesy of Tumurun Private Museum) (Tumurun/Courtesy of Tumurun Private Museum)
A
higher appreciation for the sketch as the genesis of artwork is explored in Mukti Negeriku! (My Glorious Country!), a painting exhibition held by Tumurun Private Museum, Surakarta, Central Java.
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.
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.
