Paintings by Joe Mintardja.
At Vincent’s Restaurant, Jl. Raya Candidasa, Candidasa.
Tel. 0363-41368.
In the 1940s and 1950s the Australian artist Sir William Dobell
(1899-1970) literally changed the face of Australian portrait
painting. Dobell was a classically trained artist, but after
a sojourn in London during the 1930s, furthering his studies,
he came under the influence of the Expressionistic style.
Dobell returned to his homeland, and started applying a Figurative
Expressionism to a series of commissioned, highly influential,
‘land-mark’ portraits. The Australian historian
and critic Bernard Smith was to observe: “There has
always been something characteristically Australian in Dobell’s
portraiture, a direct, quizzical and somewhat deprecating
approach to his subjects irrespective of rank or prestige.
In his paintings a complete mastery of the traditional techniques
of draughtsmanship and painting are united with a gift for
characterization equally responsive to the vanity, ugliness,
charm, stupidity, sensuality, beauty, obesity, vitality or
arrogance of his sitters. Though Dobell renders the substance
of flesh in his work with a superb skill he does not paint
it with deep sensual pleasure, but as if he were painting
the skin of a grub not long out of the earth”. At the
start of his fame, in 1944, Dobell won the prestigious Archibald
Prize for Portraiture, but two disgruntled contestants challenged
the award, and instigated a law suit claiming that his work
was not portraiture but caricature. It was a silly case, and
it was eventually thrown out of court, but the slur remained.
Over sixty years have passed, and we can now appreciate the
strength of Dobell’s work. In a young and developing
country that was emerging from a protracted World War, accompanied
by a flourishing Nationalism, Dobell’s portraits signified
a gallery of recognizable Australian types, or icons, unequalled
in the history of that nation’s art. Through emphasizing
his sitter’s attributes he painted a series of national
‘characters’, depicting Australian men and women
as they really are, or believe they are.
When viewing the works of Indonesian artist Joe Mintardja,
in his exhibition ‘Culture and Tradition’, at
Vincent’s Restaurant in Candidasa, I was struck by some
strong similarities between his work and that of William Dobell’s.
Joe Mintardja also applies a Figurative Expressionism to his
compositions. He elongates the features and anatomy of his
subjects to best convey a sense of characterization. Harsh
brushstrokes and vibrant colors enhance the personalities
and temperaments of his sitters, but, like Dobell, Mintardja’s
work can also verge on the caricature, where the individual
personality traits of his subjects are stressed, to emphasize
a subtle subtext running throughout the works. An aggressive
burgeoning Indonesian Nationalism emerges from the paintings,
suggesting a defiant quality inherent in the Indonesian psyche.
Joe Mintardja appears intent on depicting for us a series
of Indonesian ‘characters’. The paintings, given
their iconography, may form an album of the Indonesian ‘family’,
the more disadvantaged, or even the Indonesian silent majority.
A ‘truer reality’ of Indonesian life. Faces and
bodies that have suffered, and are suffering. A moment of
daily life, portraying the harsh reality of life. The characters
are not the rich, the famous and the beautiful which frequent
the mass-media. This is a definite break from the imagined
‘Indonesian Dream’, as portrayed daily in television
soap-operas.
In his painting ‘Enjoy at the Life’ Mintardja
introduces his ‘cast’, who are to re-appear in
one form or another throughout his works. What seems to be
an enjoyable evening at a warung, making music, actually seethes
with sinister undercurrents. The positioning of hands and
gestures, the interplay of eye contact, and the thrust of
the painting, leads to a messianic figure emerging from the
crowd. Just who is this ‘leader’, and what is
this cadre of musicians up to? ‘Morning Market’
appears to depict an argument over the price of a watermelon,
but the shape of the melon, and the gingerly way it is held,
also seems to suggest something much more sinister. An argument
erupts in ‘Just Misunderstanding’, but the codes
of the clothing, and the exaggeration of the facial features
of the bystanders, suggests a disagreement over class or caste
distinctions is actually going on. An idealized woman, perhaps
a symbol of Indonesian Republicanism, is surrounded by her
avid followers in the painting ‘Talking in the Afternoon’,
but as her admirers gape at her with adoration, she prefers
to gaze out of the canvas at some approaching doom. Another
messianic figure appears in the painting ‘Prepare for
a Cockfight’, but, again, the exaggerated faces of the
gamblers suggest that more than ‘bets’ and ‘odds’
are under discussion. Finally, the canvas ‘Bli Komang’
provides a portrait of a typical Indonesian man, beaten down
by years of toil and oppression. Anger and resentment are
epitomized by the way he grips his cigarette in his mouth.
With broad, theatrical gestures, Mintardja creates a tapestry
of sober and realistic caricatures, if you wish, that expose
the social tensions which underlie the new Indonesian Society
and Nation.
In his paintings, Joe Mintardja has given us a startling image
of Indonesian insurgence, but, just what his ‘characters’
are in revolt about is not clear. There is no suggestion in
the works that current politics emerging from Jakarta are
the issue, nor is there any avert indication that it is issues
connected to regional agrarianism. The facelessness of the
‘enemy’, we can say, seems to suggest that Mintardja
is implying a ‘universal’ dissention, and that
the ‘strength’ and ‘fortitude’ of
his Indonesian ‘family’, delineated so beautifully,
can act as a possible symbol for all emerging nations. With
a great degree of skill, and wit, Joe Mintardja has been able
to encapsulate the ambition, strength and character of an
entire developing nation. Mintardja’s exhibition ‘Culture
and Tradition’ provides us with much food for thought.
