Indonesia’s History of Fruits, Carved in Stone

Indonesia’s History of Fruits, Carved in Stone

In Indonesian art, the fruit motif appears in various forms. It may have appeared in various geometric textile or woodcarving motifs across the archipelago. However, due to the rather plain circular or rounded forms of fruits, its depiction in the geometric patterns in textiles, the fruit motif is not readily or easily recognized.

            The fruits themselves are often used as the main elements of decoration. The decorations of the main entrances to wedding venues are supposed to  consist of various fruit and vegetable arrangements, including pisang raja, kelapa gading, kluwih, and nanas. In Bali, the towering offerings that women carry on their heads to the temples,  consist of fruit such as manggis, jambu, sawo, salak, jeruk, pisang, mangga and even jeruk Bali and semangka.

The clearest depiction of fruits are in the stone carvings of Java and Bali. The famous Buddhist stupa-temple Borobudur are filled with relief panels that include depictions of fruit and fruit-trees.

            While some reliefs of the Borobudur are renditions of idealized figures, artifacts, and environments, many reliefs are derived from actual natural environments. Hence, many of the plants motifs on the reliefs can be identified. Cammerloher (1931) identified seven types of fruit trees: banana, mango, durian, nangka, coconut, pinang and lontar.

            The banana tree is identified from the long and slender shape of its leafs. Its leafs portrayed in a unique circular pattern, the mango is recognizable from the comma-like shape of its fruit. The large durian and nangka are easily identifiable from their fruit shapes.

            According to the shape of their leafs, the three types of palm found on the relief of the Borobudur can be divided into two types. In the “feather” shaped leaf group, the fruit of the Areca palm is much smaller than  the large round fruit of the coconut. Meanwhile, the palmyra palm can be recognized from the characteristic “fan” shape of its leaf. 

            A relief on the Borobudur (1 Ba 196) shows two monkeys congregating beneath a mango tree. One of the monkeys sits with two mangoes in his hands, while the other seems to offer him a bowl of mangoes.

            Fruits also appear as part of offerings on the reliefs of the Borobudur. One famous relief, Borobudur shows a stupa honored with offerings of incense, fruits and flowers (II 96). The fruits on this relief are shown merely using circular shapes of different sizes, without any attempt of depicting a particular kind.

            In Mendut, a smaller temple near and believed to be related to the Borobudur there are also a number of reliefs that include depictions of fruit. On the left wall in front of the entranceway to the inner chamber of a famous panel depicts Hariti, a child devourer turned protector of children.

            The tree, near which Hariti sits, has large and ripe fruit—which appear to be mango. The children are shown playing around the tree; one boy can be seen sitting in one of the tree branches while another attempts to climb the tree. To Hariti’s left, another tree, which have leafs similar in shape to the one on the other side of the panel, is filled with many small round fruit. A boy can be seen picking fruits of this tree and handing them to another who is climbing the tree, while another supports him. The tree and the fruits they bear in this relief, seem to be not merely pictorial in nature, but appear to have some symbolic significance. It seems like the tree represents the aura of Hariti’s compasssion which brings prosperity to the environment.

            Fruits also appear frequently in the famous Rama reliefs of the Prambanan. One relief shows Rama displaying his omnipotence by shooting an arrow striking a row of seven coconut trees, a scene matching the relief of Sakyamuni on the Lalitavistara series of the Borobudur. Although overall the panel seems quite refined, the sculptor whimsically includes a touch of humor into the scene. The trees, arranged in a tight linear cluster, seem squat in appearance. Each are characterized using different stem patterns, and six bird stands on top of the leafs of the trees. Meanwhile, a squirrel attempts to climb the branch of the first tree in the row.

            Art historian Thomas Hunter relates the scene to verses 157-8 of the Sixth Canto of the Kakawin Ramayana:

            "He (Sugriwa) wished to know about the power of Lord Rama,

            Wise was he, Raghusuta (=Rama), and shot straight through tal trees

            The number of those pierced by his arrow was seven tal  (=lontar) (trees)

            Sugriwa was amazed as he looked at the tal trees."

Hunter went on to predict that the Borobudur scene is a likely source of inspiration for the Prambanan scene, which in turn may have found its way into the Kakawin, but refrains from drawing a definitive conclusion before a much more thorough research is conducted.

            The manggis is seen in many indonesian artifacts, including Javanese gold. Often featured in sirih sets prepared as bridal gifts, it is said that manggis is considered a fruit that does not lie. The number of inner segments of the manggis always correspond to the number of hard petal-like marks which appear on the bottom of the fruit. Due to its inherent "honesty", the manggis serves an appropriate symbol of auspicous contract.

            In support of this notion, the figure of Bima, portrayed in the Candi Sukuh, wears manggis shaped earings, symbolic of his frank and honest character.  Hardjonagoro remarked that the manggis fruit represents integrity. Like the Dwiwarna, the national “Two-Colored” flag of Indonesia, the dark red rind of the fruit symbolizes brevity, while its white flesh symbolizes purity.

            The depiction of fruits in the art of Indonesia, particularly of Java, are often not merely decorative in presence. In many cases, they contain symbolic significance, perhaps meant as  reminder of humankind’s most revered characters. Although many of the pieces have been carved in stone, quietly much can be learned from them.

Menjiplak karya seni (lukisan)

Beginilah caranya seorang pelukis sedang menjiplak karya seni (lukisan)

Pameran Affandi di London, 1952

Pameran Affandi di London, 1952 

Jadi rupanya pameran pertama Affandi di luar negeri itu di Kedutaan Besar RI di London, bulan Februari 1952. Pameran ini menampilkan 59 karya cat minyak di atas kanvas dan sekitar 25 gambar pena dan tinta. Brosur pameran itu bisa dilihat di sini.

Pameran itu rupanya hanya berlangsung satu hari. John Berger dalam The New Statesman and Nation, 16 Februari 1952, menyebut, "his work is more exciting and moving than any new work I have seen in a long time, and must certainly be exhibited more publicly."

Bulan Mei tahun itu, pameran itu berpindah ke Army and Navy Stores. Berita tentang adanya pameran ini dilaporkan oleh John Berger dalam The New Statesman and Nation tgl 17 May 1952, kemudian dibahsnya dalam media berkala yang sama tgl 31 May 1952 (Exhibitions: A Painter of Genius).

Pada bulan Juni tahun itu pamerannya berpindah ke Imperial Institute Gallery dan dibuka oleh kritikus Eric Newton, tanggal 9 Juni 1952. Kemungkinan, John Bergerlah yang mendorong agar karya Affandi dipamerkan keliling London dan kemungkinan pula ia meminta Newton, kritikus seniornya, untuk membuka pameran ini. Berita tentang pameran ini juga diwartakan oleh Nigel Gosling di The Observer ("Themes and Variations"), 15 Juni 1952. Newton sendiri menulis tentang pameran ini di Round the London Art Galleries dalam The Listener, 19 Juni 1952. 

Beberapa ulsan tentang Affandi dan pameran karyanya di Eropa diberitakan beberapa media di Inggris dan Belanda. Dolf Verspoor menulisnya dalam sebuah catatan dan lanjutannya. Ulasannya, terbit dalam De Tijd.  Selain itu, dilaporkan bahwa Affandi akan ke Bristol kemudian ke Paris.

Majalah Time juga memberitakan keberadaan Affandi di Eropa dalam artikel Emotion from Java, Time terbitan Senin, Jan. 12, 1953


Arie Smit Turns Ninety-nine

Arie Smit Turns Ninety-nine 
Amir Sidharta 


In the middle of this month, Dutch-born artist Arie Smit turns ninety-nine. He is among Indonesia's most senior and longest-living artists, ranking second perhaps only to I Gusti Nyoman Lempad. Although he has not been painting in the last few years, his paintings are still quite highly sought after by art collectors in the region. Arie’s paintings have been characterized as "Poems of Color". Many of his paintings of Bali are indeed celebrations, in color, of the artist's joy of life. He is the Indonesian painter about whom the most number of books that have been written. They include Garret Kam's Poetic Realism: The Art of Arie Smit (Neka Museum and Centre for Strategic and International Studies, 1990), Agus Dermawan T.'s Puisi Warna Arie Smit (Yayasan Seni Rupa AIA, 1993), Suteja Neka and Sudarmadji's Arie Smit (Koes Artbooks, 1995), and Putu Wirata's Arie Smit Memburu Cahaya Bali (Museum Neka, 1996). In 2002 my own account of the artist and his work, Vibrant Arie Smit (Hexart Publishing), was published. Painter Rudolf G. Usman also published a number of small books about the artist. 

Born in Zandaam, The Netherlands, in 1916, in the middle of the first World War, it was his dream and life long goal to gain complete freedom by becoming an artist. "Since I was young, I have always been interested in the visual arts, from illustrations to paintings. However, I did not want to admit my wishes to become a painter to family or friends," he said. Ironically, the young Arie Smit arrived in Indonesia in 1938 on military contract, and was assigned to the Topographical Service. Following the Japanese occupation in 1942, as a prisoner of war, he was taken into forced labor camps in Singapore, Thailand, and Burma. 

Yet, after the Dutch finally acknowledged Indonesia's sovereignity in 1949, Arie Smit chose to remain in the new republic and became an Indonesian citizen as early as 1951. "I got my first job as a draftperson handling layout with A.C. Nix publishers in Bandung. There I worked as a graphics instructor at the Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB). I lead a group of foreigners (Kunstkring/"Art Circle" Bandung) to paint at my house, and henceforth became known as a painter," he said. Although Arie Smit did not come to Indonesia with any intention to become an artist, secretly he was awaiting a "shock". That shock came when he became a civilian in Bandung and saw the splendour of Pasundan. He maintained good working relationships with the instructors and students at ITB, and at the time of the Asia-Africa Conference in 1955, he had already held three solo exhibitions, at the Kolff in Jakarta, the BPM in Plaju, Palembang, and in Bandung. 

Yet he only decided to become a full time painter in 1956, when he came to Bali upon painter Rudolf Bonnet and art connoisseur and dealer James Pandy's invitation. Although the trip to Bali was supposed to be a relatively brief visit, the painter decided to stay on the island, apparently for good, as he has remained there for almost half a century now. “Living in Bali, I developed an understanding about rural life, especially community-life and the culture of Bali offered a deep source of inspiration,” he explained. Once in Bali he clearly gradually abandoned the careful and delicate delineation of lines in his earlier works, rendering expressively and no longer focusing on representational depiction. Arie’s began to be more expressionistic,devoting more attention to his use of light and color. 

From his very first year in Bali, Arie had already started to embark on a new stylistic journey. In the 1960s, Bali became a tourist island. Arie was influential in developing the art of the Young Artists of Penestanan, colorful and naïve reflections of rural peasant life in Bali. The art of the Young Artists was mostly bought by expatriates and visiting foreigners who loved them. Each room of Bali’s very first five-star hotel, The Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur, was decorated with a Young Arttist painting. Famous visitors to Bali, such as the famous science visionary Buckminster Fuller and renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead made collections of their work. For Arie, in retrospect, developing the works of the Young Artists (in the 1960s) was an experiment in children's art, using their own environment as themes and using pure color as he did himself. Arie himself could not stay still. While remaining on the island of Bali, he moved from one place to another: Ubud, Campuhan, Sanur, Tanjung Bungkak near Denpasar, Singaraja, and even Lovina Beach. 

Wherever he went, Arie always took his sketchbooks with him. He used sketches to record his observations of scenery and landscapes. He would note the nuance, colors, details, and other elements in the scenes that he picks out in the sketchbooks. As a landscape painter who has to deal with the multitude of forms visible in vast natural environments, Arie brings forth what he calls “the selective eye.” With such selective vision, the painter has the freedom to pick and choose from elements in the landscape that he considers significant enough to incorporate in his paintings. Since the 1970s, Arie Smit painted using mosaics of color that are brushed onto the canvas in rapid strokes. “With two opposites, namely the stillness of the subject and the movement of the brush strokes, one creates tension. With stillness alone, one falls asleep. With too much movement, one gets irritated. With tension, one gets full attention,” Arie says about the interplay of elements in his paintings. “My colors do not clash, they blend. Lines do not divide but unite,” he further asserts. While the architectural elements remain static, the surrounding nuance is built up of dynamic brush strokes. Arie works in a time-consuming process of layering color upon color but never completely covering the underlying pigments, resulting in lively and interesting variations which he calls ‘broken colors’. The artist’s spontaneous brush strokes, applied to outline or highlight the shapes and forms in his paintings in this period, often elicit a vibrant effect. “The brush strokes move and move. They create the life of the painting,” he affirms. The outlines of the forms of architecture, as well as the effects of the wind’s motion on the vegetation around the temple, all animate the nuance of the painting. Arie Smit’s works reflected his vibrant activities, constantly moving around the island and not being able to remain still at one place. 

When he came on a return visit to Ubud in 1987, where he met his old acquaintance Suteja Neka, who introduced him to Jusuf Wanandi, who was a director at the prominent Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta and an avid art collector. Under the auspices of this prominent figure in Indonesian politics, a selection of Museum Neka’s collection, including Arie Smit’s paintings, was exhibited at the East West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1988. Since then, Wanandi became more an more interested in Arie’s paintings and started to amass a sound collection of the artist’s works. Arie finally decided to move back to Ubud in 1989, after living in Singaraja for four years, when Suteja Neka offered Arie Smit to stay at his Villa Sanggingan Bungalows, situated not far from the Neka Museum in Sanggingan. Arie accepted this kind offer. 

Starting in 1990 he settled in at his new home, after having moved at least thirty times throughout the thirty-four years of his time in Bali. He was at last somewhere for good. “Now I am static – I am an old tree!” he later joked about his advancing years. While it seemed that he was going to retire, the artist continued to be productive and creative for over another decade. Until juat a few years ago, even after an eye cataract operation, he still painted in his studio, using his memories of the scenes that he has accumulated throughout almost half a century of his life on the Island of Bali. 

Sadly, however in the last few years Arie has chosen to stop painting, spending his days quietly lying in bed. Although his memory still remains sharp as a razor, and physically he remains quite strong, it seems that his failing eyesight is the reason that he is no longer interested in searching for light and colors. He seems to be desparately waiting for his ultimate freedom, which perhaps is a kind of moksha, which he will attain when his time comes. 

 On his birthday, perhaps I should pay him a visit and tell him about someone who seems to be directly is opposite. in 2006, the Denpasar Distrct court sentenced Myuran Sukumaran to execution, by firing squad. In the years awaiting his execution, he took up painting at the Kerobokan prison, and has become a wonderful painter. He has been delivering art workshops in the prison, teaching art to his fellow inmates, in his attempt to turn his life around. “Please give me a second chance at life, I am trying to be a better person,” he said in November last year, as reported by the Jakarta Post. Unfortunately, his plea for clemency was rejected by the President of Indonesia Joko Widodo end of last year, and he is due to be executed soon. The lawyer representing him has begun to make an appeal against the Administrative Court's decision to deny them a chance to challenge the Indonesian president's refusal to consider granting them clemency. The court’s decision will be made in early April. If that attempt fails, it might just happen that Myuran will be executed in the middle of April, right on Arie’s birthday. Such is life, I guess, while some people are doing all they can to get another chance in live, even though it might be all spent in prison, some others can’t wait for their plugs to be pulled. In any case, Happy 99th birthday, Pak Arie. I hope I can get you searching for the light and colors again.

Loosen Up and.. Draw?!

Loosen Up and.. Draw?!

What would an urban professional do after a long day at the office? Perhaps he/she would have dinner and go to a bar to have a few drinks, or maybe go to the gym and work out a bit, or perhaps watch a movie. Who in their right mind would draw to loosen up? Draw? Yes draw, as in making pictures using lines delineated with a pen or pencil.

Yet, if you visit the ruang rupa (Ruru) artist’s community in Tebet, South Jakarta, on a Thursday evening, you are likely to encounter a group of people drawing together. Since around September 2011, a group of artists who usually just hung out at the Ruru shop, suddenly decided to draw together. The original group consisted of Ricky Malau, an illustrator and film actor, Tiffany Ayu Puspasari, a tour organizer and freelance designer, Reza Mustar, a graphic designer of one of the hotels in Jakarta and Djarot Soerdjajie, also a graphic designer, who all felt that their daily routine in the world of art was getting stagnant. As contemporary artists, they missed the activity of drawing manually, using their own hands.

The group decided to call their activity “gambar selaw”. The term “selaw” which is not a known Indonesian word and therefore does not exist in any Indonesian dictionary, was apparently derived from the word “slow” in English. The name does not seem to refer to the pace of their drawing activity, but rather their easy going attitude in drawing. Therefore “gambar selaw” seems to mean “drawing to ease off/loosen up”. When the name is abbreviated using the first syllable of the first word and the last syllable of the last word, as often abbreviations are formed in the Indonesian language, you obtain the abbreviation “ga-law”, a pun on the word “galau”, which refers to “angst” or “the state of being perplexed”, often associated with love relationships. Perhaps this activity serves as a good remedy.

“The aim of the Gambar Selaw activity at the Ruru Shop is to provide an alternative venue to break away from the burden of daily routines, while at the same time giving our hands and fingers some exercise to actively draw again, while sharing drawing techniques and create artworks,” said Tiffany. “We hope to get people drawing manually again. We hope that drawing willl never be forgotten, and remind people that everyone can actually draw. That is one of our campaigns,” she added.

Emerging from just hanging out and chatting, Gambar Selaw has become a routine activity of drawing to ease off and loosen up. It has become a kind of drawing jam session, with around 25-30 participants, comprising of high school and college students, employees of various offices and even professionals from different fields. So yes, some people have started to loosen up and draw!

On occasion, the Gambar Selaw  sessions have been held in places other than ruangrupa. Drawing jams have been held at Warung Om Duleh, a simple restaurant serving “people’s food”, located in Tebet Timur Dalam. Recently, they have started to hold sessions at the Bogor Botanical Gardens, drawing togther while picnicking. This might become a routine event, held once a month.

While Gambar Selaw might seem to be very laid back in its organization, but it has participated in various exhibitions and events. In 2011, they held their first exhibition at D’Spice Kemang. Later that year, they showed their work in a poster tribute of the viewing of the Mocca Documentary in Yogya, and the Rrrec Fest at Tan Ek Tjoan, on Jl. Cikini Raya, Jakarta.

Last year, the works of the Gambar Selaw members were shown at an exhibition of illustrations of  posters of classical Indonesian films held at Taman Ismail Marzuki’s Galeri Cipta 3, an exhibition of postcards about Indonesia Dance Addict, held at Upstairs Bar, Cikini, and at “Fell in Love with Wrong Planet”, a glow in the dark exhibition held in conjunction with Zeke Khaseli’s album launch at Jakarta’s Goethe Institute. They also held a drawing together session at the home of Pak Raden, an artist and illustrator, and the creator of the Si Unyil television character, and also a drawing together session with children who are living under the custody of charitable foundations at Helfolks in the Mayestik Market in South Jakarta.

This February, the group’s Dear Love exhibition at Blackhouse, Jl. Cililin, Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta. An online catalog of the exhibition is available: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?al5oytslxvs1g6b. The group has also created two drawing tutorial videos, which can be viewed on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVKp_SG2ZaU & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smvu1n2fRDg

Please note and be aware that the videos might actually be more geared towards  loosening up rather than enhancing your capability to draw, but this is the spirit of Gambar Selaw.

So, next time you find yourself stressed out because of your daily activity at the office on a Thursday evening, I dare you to stop by at ruangrupa to try your hand at drawing. Would you be cool enough to give it a try? Who knows, if you are good enough, you will get your drawings exhibited one day!

Share via Whatsapp

Relief

Seri 2 Module 9 MomaClass Neo Expressionists

Neo Expressionist (Expresionis Baru) 

Apa yang ada sebelum ini? 

Minimalism: Term used in the 20th century, in particular from the 1960s onward, to describe a style characterized by an economy of forms, no traces of the artist’s hand, and industrially processed materials. More at the Tate Glossary.

Conceptual Art: Term applied to work produced from the mid-1960s that either markedly de-emphasized or entirely eliminated a perceptual encounter with unique objects in favor of an engagement with ideas. Although Henry Flynt of the Fluxus group had designated his performance pieces "concept art" as early as 1961, and Edward Kienholz had begun to devise "concept tableaux" in 1963, the term first achieved public prominence in defining a distinct art form in an article published by Sol LeWitt in 1967. Only loosely definable as a movement, it emerged more or less simultaneously in North America, Europe, and Latin America and had repercussions on more conventional spheres of artistic production spawning artists’ books as a separate category and contributing substantially to the acceptance of photographs, musical scores, architectural drawings, and performance art on an equal footing with painting and sculpture. © 2009 Oxford University Press. More at MoMA's online collection.

Para Neo Expressionist (Expresionis Baru) merangkul "seni lukis yang dianggap sudah mati" dan menekankan subyektifitas, emosi yang kuat, otobiografi, memori, psikologi simbolisme, sastra dan naratif. 

Karakteristiknya: 

• tampilan yang teknis, tematis

• cara penanganan material yang taktil, mentah & sensuous. 

• mengekpresikan emosi secara menggetarkan

• subyeknya seringkali memperlihatkan keterkaitan dengan masa lalu, apakah itu sejarah kolektif atau kenangan pribadi, yang ditelusuri melalui alegori atau simbolisme. 

• Karya-karya Expresionis Baru menarik garis dari sejarah seni lukis, patung & arsitektur, dengan menggunakan materi & tema tradisional

Joseph Beuys: German sculptor, performance artist, printmaker, and teacher. He opposed the concept of art as based on such autonomous genres as panel painting and sculpture. Instead he pursued in his performance art ("Aktionen") and sculpture an "expanded concept of art," aimed at a total permeation of life by creative acts. © 2009 Oxford University Press. More at MoMA’s online collection.

• Expresinya yang penuh dengan keterlibatan politis didambakan para Expresionis Baru. 

Phillip Guston: American painter. More at MoMA’s online collection.
• Mengagetkan dunia seni dengan karyanya komikalnya yang figuratif secara berani. 

A.R. Penck: German painter, draughtsman, sculptor, filmmaker, writer, and musician. More at MoMA’s online collection.

• karyanya expresif secara kuat
• terdiri dari karya cetak dan lukisan dengan stick figures & lambang-lambang hieroglif
• mengingatkan kita pada Die Brucke

Gerhard Richter: 

• abstraksinya, menggunakan warna-warna expresif yang berlapis-lapis dari perupa Die Brucke dengan nada-nada warna lirikal dari Der Blaue Rieter. 

• ia membuat abstraksi yang tegas, jelas, dan merupakan refleksi pada simbolisme terhadap abstraksi dan warna yang dihasilkan sepanjang sejarah

• serta mengingatkan pada aspirasi utopian dari para perupa pelopor dari Jerman 

Seni merupakan bentuk tertinggi dari harapan. 

Para Ekpresionis Baru mengkonfrontasi sejarah Jerman yang sebagaian besar waktunya dihabiskan sebagai bangsa yang terbelah. 

Anselm Kiefer: German painter. More at MoMA’s online collection.

• lukisan politisnya yang teridealisasi

• kaya dengan tekstur

* menyertakan jerami, tar, pasir & timbel 

• berlapis dengan referensi pada mitologi Nordik dan Jerman

• membahas Nazisme, Perang (Dunia), serta identitas dan kebangsaan Jerman 

• karya-karyanya "memaksakan" redemption & rehabilitasi negara

• Karakteristik karyanya: menggunakan woodcut atau cukil kayu 

• kayu menjadi semacam metafor untuk Jerman. 

Georg Baselitz: German painter, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. 

• perangkat piktorialnya yang menjadi "tanda tangannya" adalah figur terbalik. 

• suatu figur dalam daya yang energetik dari garis dan warna. 

• ia menolak Tachisme yang dianggapnya dekoratif. 

Tachisme: French style of abstract painting popular in the 1940s and 1950s. It is often considered to be the European equivalent to abstract expressionism. More at Wikipedia. 

Drypoint: Type of intaglio print. The process involves scratching lines or tones into the surface of a bare metal plate with a sharp point or other abrasive tool. The term may also refer to the process or to the tool used. © 2009 Oxford University Press. More from MoMA's online collection.

Burr: Raised edge or small pieces of material remaining attached to a workpiece after a modification process. More from Wikipedia.

A.R. Penck: German painter, draughtsman, sculptor, filmmaker, writer, and musician. More at MoMA’s online collection.

• "hijrah" dari Jerman Timur ke Barat

• karyanya dikenal dengan perbendaharaan "kata" yang terkodifikasi

• terdiri dari stick figures & simbol, yang didapatnya dari sejarah komunikasi, mulai dari lukisan/gambar di gua-gua purbakala. 

• Ia membahas tema-tema sosial politis, tentang identitas & rationalitas, suatu kebutuhan individu untuk menegaskan diri mereka dalam masyarakat yang kolektif. 

Jorg Immendorf: German painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. More at MoMA's online collection.

• melukis dalam gaya realis yang terrinci dan sangat terkonsepsikan. 

• membahas soal individu yang terperangkap dalam kehidupan modern Jerman yang kontradiktif. 

Sigmar Polke: German painter. More at MoMA’s online collection.

• menampilkan kompleksitas kehidupan Jerman dengan menghubungkannya dengan praktek seni di Amerika, terutama pop art dan apropriasi.
• ia tergabung dalam kelompok "Capitalist Realism"
• menggunakan proses ben-day tak lama setelah digunakan oleh Roy Lichtenstein.


Di Amerika Serikat Ekpresionis Baru menampilkan pergulatan dengan gaya hidup dengan lukisan-lukisan besar

Julian Schnabel: American painter. More at MoMA’s online collection.

• citra-citra yang dikutip dari sejarah

Eric Fischl: American painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. More at MoMA’s online collection.

• menampilkan karya-karya voyeuristik, soft porn, psychodrama dari Amerika kulit putih dan hidup di kawasan suburban.

New Image Painting: Term applied since the late 1970s to the work of certain painters who work in a strident figurative style, often with cartoonlike imagery and abrasive handling owing something to Neo-Expressionism. More at the-artists.org.

• beberapa perupanya merupakan mahasiswa Yale dan belajar pada Joseph Albers
• berhubungan dengan struktur seni lukis sebelumnya dalam kesederhanaaan dan minimalisme strukturnya, elemen proses & pertunjukan, serta cara ekspresi verbal. 

Joseph Albers: Painter, printmaker, sculptor, designer, writer, and teacher. Albers was the longest-serving member of the Bauhaus when it was closed under pressure from the Nazis in 1933, and he was among the faculty members who agreed with its director at the time, Mies van der Rohe, that the school be shut down. Albers and his wife Anni Albers, whom he had married in 1925, were asked in the same year to teach art at the newly formed Black Mountain College in North Carolina on the recommendation of Philip Johnson at MOMA in New York; they remained there until 1949, and Albers became one of the best-known and most influential art teachers in the United States. © 2009 Oxford University Press. More at MoMA’s online collection.

Susan Rothenberg: American painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. More at MoMA’s online collection.

Elizabeth Murray: American painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. More at MoMA’s online collection.

Jennifer Bartlett: American installation artist, painter, printmaker, and sculptor. More at MoMA’s online collection.

Jack Tworkov: American painter. View the artist’s website.

Jonathan Borofsky: American artist. View the artist’s website.

German Expressionism: Expressionism in the fine arts developed from the Symbolist and expressive trends in European art at the end of the 19th century. The period of "classical Expressionism" began in 1905, with the foundation of the group Die Brücke, and ended c. 1920. Although in part an artistic reaction both to academic art and to Impressionism, the movement should be understood as a form of "new Humanism," which sought to communicate man’s spiritual life. In order to communicate the human spiritual condition the Expressionists made use of new, strong, assertive forms, often violently distorted, symbolic colors, and suggestive lines. Their work also showed an interest in Primitivism. More at MoMA's online collection.

Brücke: German group of painters and printmakers active from 1905 to 1913 and closely associated with the development of Expressionism. © 2009 Oxford University Press.

Richard Wagner (1813-1883): German composer, conductor, theater director, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or "music dramas," as they were later called). More at Wikipedia.

Linocut: Type of relief print in which linoleum is used as the printing surface. Using gouges and knives, the artist cuts the design into linoleum, a man-made sheet flooring composed primarily of oxidized linseed oil and ground cork. © 2009 Oxford University Press. More at MoMA’s online collection.

Paula Cooper Gallery: New York City gallery. View the gallery’s website.

Louise Bourgeois: American sculptor, painter, and printmaker of French birth. More at MoMA’s online collection.  

Leon Golub: American painter. More at MoMA’s online collection.

Cy Twombly: American painter, draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor. Action painting, in particular, became his point of departure for the development of a highly personal "handwriting" that served as a vehicle for literary content. © 2009 Oxford University Press. More at MoMA’s online collection.

Lucian Freud: British painter and draughtsman. More at MoMA’s online collection.

Arnulf Rainer: Austrian painter, printmaker, and photographer. More at MoMA’s online collection.

Linocut: Type of relief print in which linoleum is used as the printing surface. Using gouges and knives, the artist cuts the design into linoleum, a man-made sheet flooring composed primarily of oxidized linseed oil and ground cork. © 2009 Oxford University Press. More from MoMA's online collection. 

Actionism: English version of general German term for Performance art, but was specifically used for the name of the Vienna-based group Wiener Aktionismus founded in 1962. The principal members of the group were Gunter Brus, Hermann Nisch, and Rudolph Schwarzkogler. Their "actions" were intended to highlight the endemic violence of humanity and were deliberately shocking, including self-torture, and quasi-religious ceremonies using the blood and entrails of animals. More at the Tate Glossary.

Vienna Actionists: The work of the Viennese Actionists is probably best remembered for the wilful transgressiveness of its naked bodies, destructiveness, and violence. Often, brief jail terms were served by participants for violations of decency laws, and their works were targets of moral outrage. More from Wikipedia.

Drypoint: Printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix") with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point.

Neo-Expressionism: This term came into use in about 1980 to describe the international phenomenon of a major revival of painting in an Expressionist manner. It was seen as a reaction to the Minimalism and Conceptual art that had dominated the 1970s. More from the Tate Glossary.

Performance Art: Descriptive term applied to "live" presentations by artists. It was first used very loosely by artists in the early 1960s in the United States to refer to the many live events taking place at that time, such as Happenings, Fluxus concerts, Events, body art, or (in Germany) Aktionen and Demonstrationen. © 2009 Oxford University Press. More at MoMA's online collection.

Quiz