Paintings, Drawings and Graphics by Han Snel
at Han Snel Gallery, Jl. Kajeng No. 3, Ubud.
Tel: 975699.
To commemorate the 10th Anniversary of his death, the Han Snel Gallery in Ubud has mounted an impressive ‘Retrospective’ of the artist’s works, which include paintings, drawings, lino cuts and wood blocks. Han Snel was born on July 16, 1925, in Scheveningen, near The Hague, in Holland. His early training was at a school of graphic arts in Holland, but this was interrupted by the Second World War, and he first arrived in Indonesia in 1946 as a conscript in the Dutch army. Against his will he was ordered to fight for control of the former Dutch Colony, but his heart was not in it. Snel fell in love with the archipelago, and he wanted to stay. He sought political asylum, and in 1950 he became an Indonesian citizen and moved to Bali, to join the vibrant and emerging art scene centered around Ubud. Snel married a local girl, Made Siti, and embraced Balinese Hinduism.
Snel’s early works were exotic female portraits, and the depiction of Balinese life and rituals. He presented the Balinese woman as the ‘Eve’ of the Western imagination, and Bali as a land of idyllic dreams. The paintings were a tribute to the island’s rich culture and traditions. In the 1950s he painted as he saw it, combining romanticism with the exuberant rawness and vivid colors of the European Fauve painters. He flattened and simplified his forms, surrounding and molding them with thick black outlines. But, before long, Snel was longing to break free from his self-imposed figurative tradition. “It was the result of a subconscious answer to a single question”, he said. “Namely, was I going to repeat myself over and over again, painting only the past”? By the 1960s Snel had combined impressionism with elements of cubism, allowing himself more freedom to interpret his surroundings with less regard to mimetic representation. In the 1970s he began to explore abstraction, placing much emphasis on the abstract qualities of line, color and form. Finally, in the last stages of his career, and life, his creative process transcended preconceptions, and entered areas dominated by subconscious expression.
“My work today”, he said at the time, “is perhaps akin to that of making music. No musician wants to imitate birds or the sound of geckos. Instead it is the wish of every artist to produce something which has never been done before, something which calls on experience and visual images but does not necessarily represent them as they may first appear”. Snel felt that in the world of abstract self-expression the artist may not be 100% in control, but he made no excuses for this. “My urge to move forward has brought me to this point in my career, and I have surrendered to it. Today I paint whatever comes out”. The ‘Han Snel Retrospective’ beautifully displays all the phases of this continually evolving artist.
One of the highlights of the exhibition is Snel’s 1974 portrait of ‘The Artist’s Wife Made Siti’. This delicate drawing, full of sensitive and sensuous lines, clearly demonstrates Snel’s ability to capture mimetic representation. ‘Market Scene’ is a lino cut, and it reveals Snel’s fascination with daily Balinese life depicted in an enchanting Art Deco style, showing his very strong sense of graphic design. Early explorations into cubism can be observed in the oil painting ‘Carrying Water’ and the pastel drawing ‘Mother and Child’. The fruits of Snel’s cubism phase come together in the marvelous oil painting ‘Composition in Red’. The work combines geometric female forms, bold patterns, and vibrant colors with rhythmic patches of light and shade, evoking movement and depth. A wonderful realization of the Cubist goal of depicting the ‘simultaneity’ of lived experience, or, if you like, looking at Bali through a glass prism.
Continuing through the exhibition, canvases such as ‘Abstract Circa 1976, 1978, 1991’ and ‘1993’ display his experiments with various forms of abstraction. The paintings contain studies in geometric expression and exercises in color, form and texture. Finally, knowing that he suffered from leukemia, his art took on a more sober aspect. As a practicing Balinese Hindu, it is said that Snel would go into a religious ‘trance’ during this phase of his painting, working directly from the subconscious. ‘Abstract Circa 1994’ is a work full of disturbing black lines, indicating his future, while the brief glimpses of the color red are intended to suggest his dwindling life-force. The large painting ‘The River of Life’ spectacularly presents the culmination of his life’s work and experiences as an artist. Knowing of his impending death, the canvas is not one of doom and gloom. Surprisingly, it is a joyful depiction of a life well lived.
Whether Snel was working in oil paint, pastels, drawings or graphics, his art effortlessly captured the exotic beauty of the Balinese women, and the lushness of Bali and its culture. This ‘Retrospective’ is a fitting homage and tribute to Han Snel’s artistic labor, and love for Bali. The exhibition re-confirms Han Snel’s position and standing in Balinese Art History.
