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Lot Essay
This season, Christie's is pleased to bring to market for the first time a comprehensive selection of the works of Indonesian modern artist, Srihadi Soedarsono. Hailed as one of the most significant living modern Indonesian painter, Srihadi's art is an expression of the spirit of modernism. As his career parallels the history of modern Indonesia, it is also important to remember how the culture and history of Java has shaped his works and outlook in life. Hence even as he is acknowledged as one of the most representative abstract Indonesian artist, we see in his career a bridge between tradition and modernity, between figuration and abstraction.
Perhaps the most distinct character of Srihadi as painter is the diverse and extremely developed way he employs colours in his works, thoroughly demonstrating a natural understanding of colours in their different hues, tones, values, and their visual and emotional power. The art critic, Jean Couteau has remarked that the 'visual melody of Srihadi's paintings, is, primarily, a melody of colour which has changed with time'. In the four lots presented this season, one sees how Srihadi moves from the youthful spontaneous expression of emotions and thoughts through the wild application of colours to a more contemplative appreciation for the world and the corresponding orderliness and subtle quality of his colours.
The Spirit of Bedoyo Ketawang (Lot 151) depicts the sacred dance associated with the royal court of Surakarta in central Java, Indonesia. The Bedoyo Ketawang epitmises the elegant character of the royal court, and one of the most important manifestation of the power of the ruler. Performed to celebrate the ascension of the royal prince of Surakarta, the Bedoyo Ketawang is usually performed by nine dancers in three sections. Srihadi depicts the first section of the dance in the present lot, with five dancers in a line elegantly immortalised in a state of graceful movement.
True to character as a colourist, Srihadi masterfully modulates the colour tones in the painting, with intense, deeply saturated shades of violet and red dominant in the painting. Srihadi manipulates the nuances of the violet, alternately lightening and darkening the colours across the picture plane, with some parts of violet becoming so dark that they become almost black. With that, Srihadi suggests a sense of movement. Outstanding in its contrast, the mint green headdress of the five dancers draw the viewers into the picture, setting off against the depth of the dark background and the lightness of the dancers' flesh.
The bedoyo dance offers what can be described as a panoramic span of human life, showing the realities of the material world through the dancers but also a part of what is transcendental - the gestures and feelings that are so much a part of human psyche but which is hard to immortalise on paper. In Srihadi's world of dancers, the invidividual dancers are not identified as particular individuals but each one of them symbolise the very essence of poise and concentration. One of the largest and finely executed bedoyo painting to come to market, the present lot marks the outstanding character of Srihadi's dancers paintings.
Vessels (Lot 152), has emerged from another of Srihadi's definitive body of works, the Horizon Seascapes where, according to the artist himself, 'the horizon acts as the line separating the higher and lower worlds, with man occupying the position in between'. Yet even as the horizon is the predominant pictorial element, Srihadi defies painterly convention and does not deploy line to represent the horizon. His horizon is in fact born at the edges of flat or nearly flat colour fields, colour fields that represent different elements of nature - the land, sky and sea. His mountains in Vessels is an iconic green, an unmistakable Srihadi colour of the 1970s that represent the artist's concern about the urban condition and the impact of human and human society on nature. In Vessels, there is tranquility and harmony between man and the natural elements.
By the 1980s, Srihadi had began on a new body of works that moved away from his previous concern with issues and particular events in social and political life to works that express his contemplative understanding of the world. Mt Krakatau (Lot 153) is a formidable three panel painting of the volcanic island of Krakatau situated in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra and is noted in history for a 1883 eruption which is considered one of modern history's most severe. Presently, the Krakatau volcano is active and has emerged from the ocean, growing larger by each passing week. In Srihadi's painterly world, this mountain is the perfect dialectic symbol of destruction and generation. Srihadi's Krakatau sits on the ocean horizon, with the sea rendered in gradating shades of blue. Srihadi captures the sense of time with a cinematic presentation of three volcanic islands in his composition and the ever changing face of the sea. Each panel is a reminder of the ebb and flow of life.
Legong Dancers (Lot 154) is the earliest work of the artist rounding off the selection this season. Though titled Legong Dancers, the work was completed in the middle of arguably the earliest series of work he has ever done, the Hunger series. Coming back from years of study in the United States, he was struck by seeing the number of urban poor and felt the sense of dislocation and disconnect having been away and thus missing the observation of the social landscape of a then still extremely impoverished Indonesia. In the work, Srihadi demonstrates a complete disregard for conventional figuration, demonstrated in the wild abandon in his choice and application of colours and the radical rendering of the human figure in the middle of his composition with rounded and cylindrical forms.
Perhaps the most distinct character of Srihadi as painter is the diverse and extremely developed way he employs colours in his works, thoroughly demonstrating a natural understanding of colours in their different hues, tones, values, and their visual and emotional power. The art critic, Jean Couteau has remarked that the 'visual melody of Srihadi's paintings, is, primarily, a melody of colour which has changed with time'. In the four lots presented this season, one sees how Srihadi moves from the youthful spontaneous expression of emotions and thoughts through the wild application of colours to a more contemplative appreciation for the world and the corresponding orderliness and subtle quality of his colours.
The Spirit of Bedoyo Ketawang (Lot 151) depicts the sacred dance associated with the royal court of Surakarta in central Java, Indonesia. The Bedoyo Ketawang epitmises the elegant character of the royal court, and one of the most important manifestation of the power of the ruler. Performed to celebrate the ascension of the royal prince of Surakarta, the Bedoyo Ketawang is usually performed by nine dancers in three sections. Srihadi depicts the first section of the dance in the present lot, with five dancers in a line elegantly immortalised in a state of graceful movement.
True to character as a colourist, Srihadi masterfully modulates the colour tones in the painting, with intense, deeply saturated shades of violet and red dominant in the painting. Srihadi manipulates the nuances of the violet, alternately lightening and darkening the colours across the picture plane, with some parts of violet becoming so dark that they become almost black. With that, Srihadi suggests a sense of movement. Outstanding in its contrast, the mint green headdress of the five dancers draw the viewers into the picture, setting off against the depth of the dark background and the lightness of the dancers' flesh.
The bedoyo dance offers what can be described as a panoramic span of human life, showing the realities of the material world through the dancers but also a part of what is transcendental - the gestures and feelings that are so much a part of human psyche but which is hard to immortalise on paper. In Srihadi's world of dancers, the invidividual dancers are not identified as particular individuals but each one of them symbolise the very essence of poise and concentration. One of the largest and finely executed bedoyo painting to come to market, the present lot marks the outstanding character of Srihadi's dancers paintings.
Vessels (Lot 152), has emerged from another of Srihadi's definitive body of works, the Horizon Seascapes where, according to the artist himself, 'the horizon acts as the line separating the higher and lower worlds, with man occupying the position in between'. Yet even as the horizon is the predominant pictorial element, Srihadi defies painterly convention and does not deploy line to represent the horizon. His horizon is in fact born at the edges of flat or nearly flat colour fields, colour fields that represent different elements of nature - the land, sky and sea. His mountains in Vessels is an iconic green, an unmistakable Srihadi colour of the 1970s that represent the artist's concern about the urban condition and the impact of human and human society on nature. In Vessels, there is tranquility and harmony between man and the natural elements.
By the 1980s, Srihadi had began on a new body of works that moved away from his previous concern with issues and particular events in social and political life to works that express his contemplative understanding of the world. Mt Krakatau (Lot 153) is a formidable three panel painting of the volcanic island of Krakatau situated in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra and is noted in history for a 1883 eruption which is considered one of modern history's most severe. Presently, the Krakatau volcano is active and has emerged from the ocean, growing larger by each passing week. In Srihadi's painterly world, this mountain is the perfect dialectic symbol of destruction and generation. Srihadi's Krakatau sits on the ocean horizon, with the sea rendered in gradating shades of blue. Srihadi captures the sense of time with a cinematic presentation of three volcanic islands in his composition and the ever changing face of the sea. Each panel is a reminder of the ebb and flow of life.
Legong Dancers (Lot 154) is the earliest work of the artist rounding off the selection this season. Though titled Legong Dancers, the work was completed in the middle of arguably the earliest series of work he has ever done, the Hunger series. Coming back from years of study in the United States, he was struck by seeing the number of urban poor and felt the sense of dislocation and disconnect having been away and thus missing the observation of the social landscape of a then still extremely impoverished Indonesia. In the work, Srihadi demonstrates a complete disregard for conventional figuration, demonstrated in the wild abandon in his choice and application of colours and the radical rendering of the human figure in the middle of his composition with rounded and cylindrical forms.