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Lot Essay
One of the most personally revealing portrait of Hendra Gunawan to appear at market in recent memory, Di Mana Hari Esok (Where Is Tomorrow) (Lot 129) is a pathos-filled self-portrait of the artist in the deepest throes of torment and captivity, committed to his art but perhaps weary of not being able to secure his freedom.
Dated to 1972, the present lot was executed while Hendra Gunawan was still imprisoned on political grounds in Kebon Waru, Bandung. His cell window clearly present in the background sets the context of a prisoner and an artist without his freedom. Hunched over in concentration, Hendra portrays himself as sculptor, carving a plaster mask. With a scarf wrapped around his neck, Hendra dropped a clue to the cold and harsh conditions of prison life. One of his toes is in bandages, indicative of an injury, perhaps physical, but probably also emotional.
Hendra did produce masks, lending the painting a greater sense of historical accuracy. Here, the mask he is carving and the other that appears to the right of his face function almost as symbols of existential questioning, underlined by the sorrowful rhetorical nature of the title of the work, Di Mana Hari Esok.
The noted critic of modern Indonesian art, Astri Wright had written of Hendra's practice, "[a]lthough his style and colours developed, Hendra's choice of themes did not change dramatically in his painting life. From the beginning, it seems, Hendra was painting people in contexts of work and play, in celebration, struggle, and death. Such themes were well established long before he joined LERKA. Seeds of Hendra's mature style were already in place in the 1950s, such as the tendency to depict people in profile or in silhouette, with a certain stylised exaggeration of facial features, expressive body movements, and long thin arms. This vocabulary is related to that of the wayang, which has influenced so much on one of the features that make Hendra's paintings look 'Indonesian'."
Hendra Gunawan did tend to depict the humblest subjects and the reality of their daily life, and Di Mana Hari Esok is consistent with his artistic vision, albeit with a greater sense of introspection. The thread running through all his major works is the indomitable spirit of the Indonesians at work or play, with a boundless sense of celebration and festivity in everyday life or during ritual performances, and occasionally caught in the poignancy of grief and suffering. Under his brush, the portrayal of farmers, merchants in the traditional markets and fishermen is suffused with a sense of unmistakable humanity seen also in the self-portrait Di Mana Hari Esok.
Dated to 1972, the present lot was executed while Hendra Gunawan was still imprisoned on political grounds in Kebon Waru, Bandung. His cell window clearly present in the background sets the context of a prisoner and an artist without his freedom. Hunched over in concentration, Hendra portrays himself as sculptor, carving a plaster mask. With a scarf wrapped around his neck, Hendra dropped a clue to the cold and harsh conditions of prison life. One of his toes is in bandages, indicative of an injury, perhaps physical, but probably also emotional.
Hendra did produce masks, lending the painting a greater sense of historical accuracy. Here, the mask he is carving and the other that appears to the right of his face function almost as symbols of existential questioning, underlined by the sorrowful rhetorical nature of the title of the work, Di Mana Hari Esok.
The noted critic of modern Indonesian art, Astri Wright had written of Hendra's practice, "[a]lthough his style and colours developed, Hendra's choice of themes did not change dramatically in his painting life. From the beginning, it seems, Hendra was painting people in contexts of work and play, in celebration, struggle, and death. Such themes were well established long before he joined LERKA. Seeds of Hendra's mature style were already in place in the 1950s, such as the tendency to depict people in profile or in silhouette, with a certain stylised exaggeration of facial features, expressive body movements, and long thin arms. This vocabulary is related to that of the wayang, which has influenced so much on one of the features that make Hendra's paintings look 'Indonesian'."
Hendra Gunawan did tend to depict the humblest subjects and the reality of their daily life, and Di Mana Hari Esok is consistent with his artistic vision, albeit with a greater sense of introspection. The thread running through all his major works is the indomitable spirit of the Indonesians at work or play, with a boundless sense of celebration and festivity in everyday life or during ritual performances, and occasionally caught in the poignancy of grief and suffering. Under his brush, the portrayal of farmers, merchants in the traditional markets and fishermen is suffused with a sense of unmistakable humanity seen also in the self-portrait Di Mana Hari Esok.