Basar Idjonati: A Forgotten Indonesian Mooi Indie Painter

By Darrell John Kitchener

Many Indonesian landscape artists in the early part of the twentieth century were clearly influenced by the somewhat romantic style landscape paintings of expatriate Europeans and Japanese living in Indonesia. However, there were also a number of indigenous and Indo- European realist landscape painters who, from the early to mid-twentieth century, developed a style commonly referred to as Mooi Indie.
This book has its genesis in trips to England and southern Europe taken in the 1970s where the author experienced, and was attracted to, the beauty and technical skills of eighteenth- to mid-nineteenth century naturalist English landscape school painters and the derivative French Barbizon plein – air school. Although influenced by the above schools, Mooi Indie painters had their own unique subject matter, perspective, brush strokes and palette which make their work instantly recognizable and eminently worthy of respect.
The largest concentration of Mooi Indie painters was in Bandung, West Java. Apart from Basuki Abdullah, Mas Pirngadie, Suriosubroto and Sukardji, most of their work is little known. One family living at Bandung included three superb Mooi Indie painters of which Basar Idjonati was the most distinguished.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Nov 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543748925

Darrell John Kitchener

Darrell john Kitchener is an Australian who in 1973 gained a doctorate in Zoology from the University of Western Australia and then worked for 28 years with the Western Australian Museum. He began his research in Indonesia in 1984 as a biologist exploring the nature of the interface between the Australian and Oriental biogeographic regions. This took him on extensive travels through the archipelago, including all the major islands and 35 of the smaller ones, usually living in remote communities. In 1993, he moved to Jakarta and for the next 22 years managed a range of projects for international conservation organizations working to conserve Indonesian biological diversity. These included projects on protected areas, orangutans, forest reform, watershed management and global climate change. During his work in Indonesia he developed an appreciation for the richness and variety of Indonesian culture and its artistic expression, particularly fine art, ikat cloth and pottery. Along with his wife, Heny Kustiarsih, he has a book in press on the Chinese and Southeast Asian ceramics found beneath the waters of the Musi River near Palembang, southern Sumatra.

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Copyright © 2018 Darrell John Kitchener. All rights reserved.

ISBN

978-1-5437-4891-8 (sc)

978-1-5437-4892-5 (e)

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www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore

12/05/2018

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Basar Idjonati

A forgotten painter

from the

Indonesian Mooi Indie generation

DARRELL JOHN KITCHENER

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Painting Style and Approach

Basar’s Life

Contemporary Status

Productivity and Distribution

Influences and Social Environment

Expatriate Artists

Indonesian Painter Organizations and Studios

Associated Bandung painters

Indonesian Critics of Mooi Indie

Acknowledgments

References

Additional Plates of Basar’s Paintings

Preface

I first saw a painting by Basar Idjonati in Jakarta in 1993. It was a well executed large landscape painted with oil on canvas with an interesting perspective. At that time, I was surprised that nobody knew of Basar, because in the context of indigenous Indonesian landscape painters, he clearly was of note. Further searches for information on Basar over the next several years were not fruitful; I was able to find only two other paintings by him.

In December 1996, I returned to Jakarta to live for 15 months. One of my interests during that sojourn was to unlock the mystery of Basar. Was there, for example, a community of people who collected his works that I had not contacted? Was he merely an unproductive artist and consequently produced too few works to have established a reputation? Was he productive but isolated, either by his location or his lack of desire to exhibit his works? Or was his art merely not a popular style in Indonesia?

This book is the result of many searches throughout Java to unravel the mystery of Basar. In many cases this meant following trails that were long since cold. I have been able to flesh out some of the more important aspects of Basar’s life and have seen a wide array of his paintings. I have to my satisfaction answered the important questions concerning his life and art. I am, though, confident others will want to take this journey further, particularly the earlier years of his painting and to Holland. I hope their travels will be as personally rewarding as mine have been.

Introduction

Dutch and European artists dominated the Indonesian colonial period up to the Second World War. Such that painting exhibitions held in distinguished spaces in Indonesia almost exclusively presented the work of expatriates.

Most Indonesian artists had no route to formal training until after The Second World War. Moreover, those who reached prominence before the War were greatly influenced by Dutch culture and artistic styles. Most spoke Dutch and grew up in Indonesian aristocratic or elite families (Spanjaard 2016). Many attended colonial schools that taught drawing as an official part of the school curriculum. The style of these pre- War artists mostly concentrated on painting scenes in the realistic/naturalistic style which captured the beauty of Indonesia, whether landscapes or seascapes or the people. Many scenes were dominated by mountains. These were called painters of beautiful Indonesia, Mooi Indie, or Hindia Molek or Hindia Jelita. They included the almost solitary and towering Indonesian figure of Raden Saleh (1807-1880); and later, Abdullah Suriosubroto (1878-1942), who lived in Bandung; Mas Pirngadie (1865-1936), Banyumas, West Java; Wakidi (1890-1979),West Sumatra; Leonardus Eland (1884-1952), Salatiga; Ernest Dezentje (1885-1972), Jakarta; Basuki Abdullah (1914-1994), Solo; Sudjono Abdullah (1913-1986); Sukardji (circa 1894-1964); Dullah (1919-1996); Wahdi (1917-1996) and the lesser known figures of Tjokrodidjojo and Widjojosastro, both from Solo, who painted around the turn