Ulasan Beberapa Karya dalam Pameran Jati Diri: Periskop Seni Rupa Indonesia

Maka Lahirlah Angkatan '66
The mid-1960s was a particularly difficult period for Indonesia. The country was suffering from an economic and political crisis. Sudjojono depicted the people’s frustration during that time in his 1966 painting Maka Lahirlah Angkatan '66 (“Hence Was Born the 1966 Generation”). A young student wearing a red jacket stands in the midst of buildings around the Hotel Indonesia and billboards filled with graffiti. He is holding a can of paint in his hands, offering a clue of the authorship of the graffiti.

On this canvas, Sudjojono wrote: 

     With all his means,
     with all his might,
     this young conveyor of the people's voice says
     "In the name of Ampera"

Still employing his Realist approach in featuring one person as the main subject matter, he uses the single figure to represent Ampera (acronym for Amanat Penderitaan Rakyat / The Aspiration of the People’s Suffering), which the Republic of Indonesia proclaimed to serve. Sudjojono smartly used the image of the students who were outraged at Sukarno and the PKI, but at the same time were still on the side of the people.


Maka Lahirlah Angkatan ’66 was probably one of the only paintings with a political message that Sudjojono painted in the period immediately following the abortive G30S PKI Coup and the early period of what became known as the New Order in Indonesian politics. Another work entitled Prambanan was a revision of the 1949 painting known as Seko (“Guerilla Vanguard”). In the later painting, the artist seemed to rethink his 1950s concept of Realism. Instead of depicting the militiaman as a heroic figure standing intrepidly in front of war-torn ruins as he did in the earlier painting, here the figure cautiously crouches, deliberating whether or not it is safe for him to proceed in crossing the street. Apologetically, he inscribes on the canvas: “We had no choice but to burn down the Chinese shophouses. What else could we do, for the sake of victory.” He further notes that it was modelled on his original July 1949 sketch which included the crossing of the street. It seems that he was trying to depict the situation more realistically than the idealistic version of almost twenty years earlier.

Perempuan di atas Bukit
Into the painting Sudjojono incorporated elements that are clearly derived from the landscapes of the area around his childhood hometown of Kisaran, or perhaps even Lake Toba, also in North Sumatra, and the hills and valleys of Java and Bali. On the upper right part of the painting, peaks of the roofs of the meru structures of a Balinese temple can be seen appearing in what seems like a mountainous region. Although there may be some parts of Indonesia and even Bali where mountains are so very close to the sea, but Sudjojono’s landscape in this painting is not a mere rendition of a view that is readily available in reality. It is only a reality in his mind, but now it has become a reality in this painting.

The woman closest to the viewer is Rose Pandanwangi, the artist’s wife, who wears a baju bodo traditional dress from Makassar, her birthplace. Standing next to her is another woman who bears resemblance to Rose. In fact she is also modeled by Rose, but painted significantly fairer than the woman in the baju bodo. Born Rosalina Wilhelmina Poppeck, Rose is of mixed Makassarese and European descent. In this second woman, Sudjojono presents her more as a Indo-European woman, dressed in a white summer dress. Behind the two figures stands a younger woman who appears more Indonesian and appropriately wears a kebaya and kain panjang. She is modeled by Rose’s daughter Sara Sri, from her marriage to her first husband, Jack Sumabrata.

The depiction of Rose Pandanwangi as two figures, one as a woman dressed in traditional Makassarese clothing and the other as a woman dressed in modern Western clothing, along with her daughter behind the two figures seem to express the artist’s admiration of his wife and family.






High Level 1970

Dalam melukis, Sudjojono menggunakan dua gaya. Untuk yang serius, dia gunakan pendekatan realisme yang didalamninya terutama pada tahun 1950an.


Selain itu, dia juga mengguakan gaya karikaturistik, terutama ketika melukis komentar sosial, seperti dalam lukisan ini. Ia sangat terkesan pada gaya individual orang-orang yang berbeda-beda. Seringkali, lukisannya menjadi kenangan tentang tata busana dan penampilan khas pada jamannya, misalnya popularitas corduroy, sepatu boots, serta penggunaan cigarette holder, yang merupakan pernyataan fashion jaman itu

Seko


Another work entitled Prambanan was a revision of the 1949 painting known as Seko (“Guerilla Vanguard”). In the later painting, the artist seemed to rethink his 1950s concept of Realism. Instead of depicting the militiaman as a heroic figure standing intrepidly in front of war-torn ruins as he did in the earlier painting, here the figure cautiously crouches, deliberating whether or not it is safe for him to proceed in crossing the street. Apologetically, he inscribes on the canvas: “We had no choice but to burn down the Chinese shophouses. What else could we do, for the sake of victory.” He further notes that it was modelled on his original July 1949 sketch which included the crossing of the street. It seems that he was trying to depict the situation more realistically than the idealistic version of almost twenty years earlier.