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拍品专文
The works of Hendra Gunawan are representations of the most memorable scenes of daily Indonesian life. Born and raised in the rural areas of West Java, Indonesia, Gunawan was fond of nature from a tender age. These became the foundation and inspiration for his art. Throughout his life, Hendra was exposed to many life changing events that saw the nation develop through the steadfast struggle of his fellow compatriots. Ultimately, it was the people and the land that mattered to the artist. As Astri Wright keenly observed, Hendra Gunawan was ‘A Gauguin who did not need to leave his country to find his paradise’.
Young Gunawan aspired to be a painter and was involved in many cultural activities. He decided to leave his family home in 1935 and move to the city to fulfil his ambition of becoming a painter. Under the tutelage of Wahdi Sumanta – a young and rising star amongst the painters of the time – and Affandi, who later became his contemporary, Hendra embarked on his artistic exploration. It was from Sumanta that Hendra started to deepen his technical skills and artistry in composing the pictorial plane, especially excelling in his depiction of the natural landscape.
These grand vistas often are often secondary to the subjects of his painting. Astri Wright describes his landscape vignettes as ‘so complete in themselves they could stand on their own’. On rare occasions, such as in the present lot, Hendra Gunawan allowed the grandeur of the sweeping landscapes command the viewers’ full attention. Even with the landscape as the primary focus of his landscape, the human remains ever present in most of his work. Painting people using very brief strokes within the scenery, Gunawan expresses the greatness of nature within the universe through its contrast with the miniaturization of the people.
The present lot, Mountain Landscape (Lot 52), is the artist’s ideal embodiment of his beloved nation’s untouched environment. Sumanta’s influence is palpable through the sophisticated composition and his manipulation of the oil paint to achieve the ‘moist’ quality to the painting, imagining the humid atmosphere of the scene. Additionally, Hendra’s signature painterly style that he developed since the early 1950s is evident in this painting in the layering of vibrant colours to depict the picturesque landscape of the towering mountain on his canvas. His love for bright colours stemmed from his experience seeing a school of small, colourful fish, their colours changing with every move they made. In comparison to the earthier palette of his earlier works painted before his incarceration for his political involvement with a communist party, Mountain Landscape displays Hendra’s confidence in applying bold colours that are still substantial to the physical appearance of his subject, breaking away from the notion of Mooi Indie (Beautiful Indies).
In this tight composition, Hendra juxtaposing the panoramic view and his unusual vertical format of canvas without affecting the grandiosity of the view. Once Hendra’s has pulled the viewers gaze across the canvas, one is inclined to cast their eyes towards the elements that have been arranged in front of the great mountain. Taken from a bird’s-eye view of the scenery, he layers his composition with different elements of the idyllic Indonesian landscape, from the padi terrace, past the densely packed hills, until it reaches the main subject: the mountain. This layering of multiple components, not only adds to the richness of the composition but also creating depth on the canvas. Despite the calming palette of colours, Gunawan’s subject is brought alive through his spontaneous yet controlled brushstrokes that shaped the additional details to his painting, such as the appearance of volcanic smoke on top of the enormous mountain and the presence of translucent layer of mist above the hills, giving a sense of far removed place.
Mountain Landscape is an extremely exceptional early work from Hendra Gunawan’s oeuvre. Painted in 1955, Mountain Landscape offers a different perspective to Indonesia’s tumultuous political situation. Instead of the underground movements by the insurgents that are often pictured in Hendra’s works during that time, Mountain Landscape presents a distinct and honest celebration of a nation’s spirit through an eloquent illustration of an idyllic pastoral scene.
Young Gunawan aspired to be a painter and was involved in many cultural activities. He decided to leave his family home in 1935 and move to the city to fulfil his ambition of becoming a painter. Under the tutelage of Wahdi Sumanta – a young and rising star amongst the painters of the time – and Affandi, who later became his contemporary, Hendra embarked on his artistic exploration. It was from Sumanta that Hendra started to deepen his technical skills and artistry in composing the pictorial plane, especially excelling in his depiction of the natural landscape.
These grand vistas often are often secondary to the subjects of his painting. Astri Wright describes his landscape vignettes as ‘so complete in themselves they could stand on their own’. On rare occasions, such as in the present lot, Hendra Gunawan allowed the grandeur of the sweeping landscapes command the viewers’ full attention. Even with the landscape as the primary focus of his landscape, the human remains ever present in most of his work. Painting people using very brief strokes within the scenery, Gunawan expresses the greatness of nature within the universe through its contrast with the miniaturization of the people.
The present lot, Mountain Landscape (Lot 52), is the artist’s ideal embodiment of his beloved nation’s untouched environment. Sumanta’s influence is palpable through the sophisticated composition and his manipulation of the oil paint to achieve the ‘moist’ quality to the painting, imagining the humid atmosphere of the scene. Additionally, Hendra’s signature painterly style that he developed since the early 1950s is evident in this painting in the layering of vibrant colours to depict the picturesque landscape of the towering mountain on his canvas. His love for bright colours stemmed from his experience seeing a school of small, colourful fish, their colours changing with every move they made. In comparison to the earthier palette of his earlier works painted before his incarceration for his political involvement with a communist party, Mountain Landscape displays Hendra’s confidence in applying bold colours that are still substantial to the physical appearance of his subject, breaking away from the notion of Mooi Indie (Beautiful Indies).
In this tight composition, Hendra juxtaposing the panoramic view and his unusual vertical format of canvas without affecting the grandiosity of the view. Once Hendra’s has pulled the viewers gaze across the canvas, one is inclined to cast their eyes towards the elements that have been arranged in front of the great mountain. Taken from a bird’s-eye view of the scenery, he layers his composition with different elements of the idyllic Indonesian landscape, from the padi terrace, past the densely packed hills, until it reaches the main subject: the mountain. This layering of multiple components, not only adds to the richness of the composition but also creating depth on the canvas. Despite the calming palette of colours, Gunawan’s subject is brought alive through his spontaneous yet controlled brushstrokes that shaped the additional details to his painting, such as the appearance of volcanic smoke on top of the enormous mountain and the presence of translucent layer of mist above the hills, giving a sense of far removed place.
Mountain Landscape is an extremely exceptional early work from Hendra Gunawan’s oeuvre. Painted in 1955, Mountain Landscape offers a different perspective to Indonesia’s tumultuous political situation. Instead of the underground movements by the insurgents that are often pictured in Hendra’s works during that time, Mountain Landscape presents a distinct and honest celebration of a nation’s spirit through an eloquent illustration of an idyllic pastoral scene.