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Thomas Cook, Pandy and fine art in Indonesia
Bali vibes: One of Jim Pandy’s paintings, collected by president Sukarno
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Bali vibes: One of Jim Pandy’s paintings, collected by president Sukarno.
A topic of world news in the past few weeks has been the insolvency of the Thomas Cook travel company. The news was shocking because of the impact on its 22,000 employees in 16 countries.
Thomas Cook founded the company in 1841, initially offering one-day railway tour packages to visit interesting areas across the United Kingdom. As time went by, Thomas Cook continued to thrive until the end of the 20th century, when it opened its own airline business.
However, the economic troubles in Europe, coupled with the UK’s planned exit from the European Union, caused the collapse of Thomas Cook. The impact was devastating, with hundreds of thousands of tourists around the world who used its services left in limbo.
The fall of Thomas Cook has not only troubled vacationers, but also saddened the fine art community of Indonesia because the travel bureau once assigned one of its employees, James “Jim” Pandy, to help promote Indonesia’s visual arts.
Pandy (1916 to 1982), a European man born in Manado, North Sulawesi, joyfully guided international tourists to Lake Toba, Borobudur temple, Mount Bromo and Bali when he was working as a tour guide for Thomas Cook before World War II.
After WW II, in 1947, Pandy quit his job and set up the Pandy Art Shop on Sanur beach in Bali. He utilized his tour guiding experience and continued to approach Thomas Cook to make Pandy Art Shop a main destination in Bali.
Pandy Art Shop grew into a gallery through the encouragement of Indonesia’s first president Sukarno, who wished to see an Indonesian fine art show window in Sanur. Thus, Pandy Gallery opened in 1952, occupying a far larger building with a more sophisticated presentation.
Sukarno felt the increasing need for Pandy Gallery to promote Indonesian fine art abroad and asked Pandy to exploit his sale promotion capacity.
“Say to German guests, ‘Indonesische bildende kunst muss gesammelt werden!’ [Indonesia artworks must be collected!]. Tell Spanish guests, ‘Arte Indonesio de gran calidad!’ [Indonesia artworks are great!]. Employ your Thomas Cook experience to draw global visitors,” Sukarno told Pandy as quoted by Dullah, a presidential palace painter from 1950 to 1960.
Pandy warmly welcomed the president’s idea.
Moreover, Sanur beach was the most important icon of Indonesia’s tourism at the time. Pandy also began to notice the exhibits at his gallery were dominated by Balinese works and felt art that reflected Indonesia’s artistic diversity was needed.
Sukarno, aware of what Pandy wanted, urged entrepreneur Tjio Tek Djien in Jakarta to build a studio to gather artists, especially painters, from various parts of Indonesia, to produce art works.
From Tjio’s studio in Cideng, Central Jakarta, paintings bearing Indonesian themes were sent to Pandy Gallery.
Pandy was also a painter and skilled interior decorator at this time and his canvases were collected by Sukarno. When Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited Bali and spent a night at Sindhu Beach Hotel, Pandy designed his room’s interior as instructed by Sukarno.
Pandy Gallery was gaining popularity while Pandy frequently acted as a promoter of art exhibitions organized by various other institutions.
As Pandy served as the host, exhibition schedules were typically arranged to coincide with the arrival of Thomas Cook tourists.
To serve guests from diverse backgrounds, Pandy sought an intellectual artist as his assistant.
“It’s necessary to respond to the words and thoughts of Thomas Cook tourists, who include rich entrepreneurs, researchers, scientists, cultural experts, students, doctors and professors,” said Pandy as quoted by Dutch painter Arie Smit, who was chosen as his assistant.
Pandy first heard about Arie in 1947, when the latter was still a graphic art lecturer at Universitaire Leergang Voor de Opleiding van Tekenleraren, now the Fine Art and Design School of the Bandung Institute of Technology in West Java. They met for the first time in 1956, when Arie had settled in Ubud, Bali.
“I saw that most of Pandy Gallery’s guests came from Thomas Cook. It was through Thomas Cook’s bureau that Pandy could invite top executives of such companies as Shell, Ericsson and Goodyear to visit,” said Arie.
With the busy market, the gallery was short on supplies and personnel. So, Pandy asked Arie to find another assistant. Arie then went to Bandung to see young painter called Srihadi Soedarsono.
Srihadi, who would eventually emerge as a famous artist, assisted Pandy in selecting artworks from remote areas of Bali.
Pandy Gallery was no longer active by 1970.
Furthermore, Sanur has been replaced by Kuta as the icon of Bali’s beach tourism. However, Indonesia’s fine art community has never forgotten the legend of Pandy Gallery and the Thomas Cook travel agency.
“Pandy and Thomas Cook are like both sides of a coin. They have contributed greatly to the internationalization of Indonesian fine art,” said Suteja Neka, the founder of Neka Museum in Ubud, Bali.
— Photos courtesy of Agus Dermawan T.
