Realist painter Herri Soedjarwanto says his works are open for the public to interpret.
If your art tastes need spicing up with enigmas, curiosities, contradictions, challenges and puzzles, then don’t go looking for realism of the sort dealt in by Surakarta painter Herri Soedjarwanto.
His portraits of cherubic people look more like touched-up photographs, which is one of the criticisms flung at the medium by those who prefer their art to be abstract.
Herri was a leading student of Dullah, Indonesia’s so-called King of Realism, a palace favorite when Sukarno ruled. He finished some of Dullah’s works after the old man died of a heart attack in 1996.
They include a stirring crowd scene featuring the first president meeting the people under a canopy of billowing red and white flags — a nationalist’s fantasy.
However, if you consider such paintings unsubtle, romantic and triumphantly jingoistic and prefer raw commentary, then you need an artist like Herri Soedjarwanto.
“People can have more than one personality,” he said in his crowded Surakarta studio where he’s been for the past 20 years, surrounded by canvases from floor to ceiling.
“Some paintings I create for clients are realistic. Like these Balinese couples in traditional dress just after their wedding — but my other work comes from the heart.”
And what a troubled organ — or so it seems. In one large canvas a phantom image of Sukarno weeps over a tortured landscape of poverty, misery and chaos. All the Proclamator’s dreams for a prosperous and happy nation destroyed by greed, intolerance and corruption.
Then there’s a pastoral of second president Soeharto, shirt open, sleeves rolled up, holding a sheaf of rice. He presides at the head of a table laden with plump farm produce held by sturdy farmers. Even the beasts look fan-struck.
Realist painter Herri Soedjarwanto says his works are open for the public to interpret.
If your art tastes need spicing up with enigmas, curiosities, contradictions, challenges and puzzles, then don’t go looking for realism of the sort dealt in by Surakarta painter Herri Soedjarwanto.
His portraits of cherubic people look more like touched-up photographs, which is one of the criticisms flung at the medium by those who prefer their art to be abstract.
Herri was a leading student of Dullah, Indonesia’s so-called King of Realism, a palace favorite when Sukarno ruled. He finished some of Dullah’s works after the old man died of a heart attack in 1996.
They include a stirring crowd scene featuring the first president meeting the people under a canopy of billowing red and white flags — a nationalist’s fantasy.
However, if you consider such paintings unsubtle, romantic and triumphantly jingoistic and prefer raw commentary, then you need an artist like Herri Soedjarwanto.
“People can have more than one personality,” he said in his crowded Surakarta studio where he’s been for the past 20 years, surrounded by canvases from floor to ceiling.
“Some paintings I create for clients are realistic. Like these Balinese couples in traditional dress just after their wedding — but my other work comes from the heart.”
And what a troubled organ — or so it seems. In one large canvas a phantom image of Sukarno weeps over a tortured landscape of poverty, misery and chaos. All the Proclamator’s dreams for a prosperous and happy nation destroyed by greed, intolerance and corruption.
Then there’s a pastoral of second president Soeharto, shirt open, sleeves rolled up, holding a sheaf of rice. He presides at the head of a table laden with plump farm produce held by sturdy farmers. Even the beasts look fan-struck.
Resource: http://www.thejakartapost.com
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