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Lot Essay
Hendra Gunawan is one of Indonesia's greatest pioneers of modern art. Using non-traditional, European visual elements, he nevertheless created works which were Indonesian in feeling and in experience. After his death in 1983, Hendra was described as "an artist whose 'Indonesian-ness' was indisputable, and a man whose 'infatuation with the people', as well as with the republic, was lifelong" (Astri Wright, Soul, Spirit and Mountain: Preoccupations of contemporary Indonesian painters, 1994:166, quoting from the 18, 19 & 20 July 1983 editions of KOMPAS). These comments viewed alongside the knowledge that he was involved with politically oriented cultural organisations, show that he was strongly influenced by political ideologies and socially concerned about the realities of life for the ordinary Indonesian people.
From the beginning, Hendra was already painting scenes of everyday events with ordinary Indonesian folk. Thus his choice of a genre subject-matter was well established even before he joined LEKRA (the Institute of People's Culture, a cultural organisation affiliated to the Indonesia Communist Party) and he continued o use it in his paintings throughout his life, very rarely veering away from the sensibilities of working-class Indonesia. The strong emotions imbued in the numerous scenes of revolutionary struggle are made effective in the composition of the paintings. With this penchant for working on large, often elongated, canvases, Hendra would fill the pictorial space with scenes of people at the market, on the beach, at festivals and performances, always emphasising the actor's relationships and interaction with each other.
In the aftermath of the 1965 anti-Communist purge, Hendra was imprisoned for 13 years for his involvement with LEKRA. This long imprisonment left him with an intense longing for his family and the outside world and the paintings from this period are charged with an emotional and profound expressivity rarely seen in his earlier works. As Astri Wright succinctly described, "the paintings from these years are filled with the themes of longing and past togetherness, depicting personal involvement between a few people, often a man and a woman or a man and a child and wonderfully open vistas." (Astri Wright, "Painting the People" in Modern Indonesian Art, 1990:129).
The Common Indonesian people are celebrated with great vivacity in the present lot. The brilliant hues, bold swirling brushstrokes and the exaggerated poses imbue the painting with a sensuality that is characteristic of Hendra's later works, particularly those dated from his imprisonment. Once again, the ordinary people are immortalised in a painting where the foreground is densely filled with frentic activity, the figures rendered almost life-size.
From the beginning, Hendra was already painting scenes of everyday events with ordinary Indonesian folk. Thus his choice of a genre subject-matter was well established even before he joined LEKRA (the Institute of People's Culture, a cultural organisation affiliated to the Indonesia Communist Party) and he continued o use it in his paintings throughout his life, very rarely veering away from the sensibilities of working-class Indonesia. The strong emotions imbued in the numerous scenes of revolutionary struggle are made effective in the composition of the paintings. With this penchant for working on large, often elongated, canvases, Hendra would fill the pictorial space with scenes of people at the market, on the beach, at festivals and performances, always emphasising the actor's relationships and interaction with each other.
In the aftermath of the 1965 anti-Communist purge, Hendra was imprisoned for 13 years for his involvement with LEKRA. This long imprisonment left him with an intense longing for his family and the outside world and the paintings from this period are charged with an emotional and profound expressivity rarely seen in his earlier works. As Astri Wright succinctly described, "the paintings from these years are filled with the themes of longing and past togetherness, depicting personal involvement between a few people, often a man and a woman or a man and a child and wonderfully open vistas." (Astri Wright, "Painting the People" in Modern Indonesian Art, 1990:129).
The Common Indonesian people are celebrated with great vivacity in the present lot. The brilliant hues, bold swirling brushstrokes and the exaggerated poses imbue the painting with a sensuality that is characteristic of Hendra's later works, particularly those dated from his imprisonment. Once again, the ordinary people are immortalised in a painting where the foreground is densely filled with frentic activity, the figures rendered almost life-size.