86 - Haji Widayat (Indonesian, 1919-2002)

Haji Widayat (Indonesian, 1919-2002) Ark van Noah',signed and dated ‘Widayat/70’ (lower right); titled and signed again (on the stretcher),oil and mixed media on canvas, 100,5x150 cm, Provenance:-Collection of Jan Filius, Rotterdam, thence by descent to the present owner.Jan Filius (20 February 1924–27 August 1988) was a Dutch journalist and publicity officer associated with the Salvation Army and Protestant missionary organisations. He contributed to De Strijdkreet, the Salvation Army’s magazine, for which he conducted interviews, among other contributions. In 1974, the magazine published his interview with Dutch minister Jan Pronk on development cooperation.Filius also served as press officer for the Mission Council of the Netherlands Reformed Church. He contributed to publications including Vandaar and Werelddiakonaat and played an important role in promoting the nationwide Kom over de Brug fundraising campaigns of 1968 and 1972, which supported projects in developing countries.According to his family, Filius visited Indonesia on several occasions for his work during the 1960s and early 1970s. His involvement with the country is also reflected in the description of a press photograph archive containing 34 photographs attributed to him, depicting everyday life in Indonesia. Among his possessions was Widayat’s painting Noah’s Ark, dated 1970. According to his heir, the painting was probably in the family home by around 1975, or possibly earlier, and subsequently passed to him by inheritance.The Ark of Noah is one of the favourite subjects of Widayat. After the deluge a gigantic boat rests on calm water. The rainbow consolidates the bond between God/Allah and humanity. Inside the boat the fauna of the world has been saved. The animals stand in couples, side-by-side. Elephants, camels, tigers, giraffes, horses, monkeys and birds are ready to leave the boat. A brilliant sun colours the sky and the water.In his youth Widayat lived several years in the forest of Sumatra. He went there from Java in 1939 to become a land surveyor, measuring the size of rubberplantations in the service of the former Dutch colonial government. His years in the jungle (1939-1942) made a deep and lasting impression. The relationship between man, animal and nature can be considered as a recurring theme throughout Widayat’s artistic oeuvre.During his long and productive life the main theme of the artist has been the imagination of a tropical paradise (Flora-Fauna). His many variations of this theme have enchanted a national and international public. Peaceful landscapes show a timeless world of animals, trees, bushes and flowers in which the human being plays a very small part. Separate elements of the composition are painted in a static way. Movement is caused not by the subjects themselves but by the rhythm in which the composition is shaped. This strong rhythm is accentuated by the repetition of certain basic forms. These forms are not copied from nature. They are based on long time observation of the natural world and then simplified to essential shapes. Widayat called this process deformation (deformasi).As a child Widayat grew up surrounded by the rich culture of middle Java. His mother, Ibu Djumi, was well known for her refined, exquisite batik cloths. The abstract, symbolic language of Javanese batik and other crafts has been an important inspiration for Widayat’s visual language. Besides a preference for simplified forms this is also clear by the use of subdued, dark colours: deep blue, brown, ochre and green.During the fifties and sixties several Indonesian artists (especially from Bandung) went to the West (USA and Europe) to study at art academies. In contrast Widayat, who becamea teacher at the art academy in Yogyakarta (1950), went to Japan (Nagoya). From 1960-1962 he studied ceramics, graphics, landscape gardening and ikebana. These two years in Japan broadened his horizon. He enjoyed the refined aesthetics of Japanese art. After returning home, Widayat became the head of the department of decoration and design of the Yogyakarta academy (Akademi Seni Rupa Indonesia).As a teacher (1950-1988) Widayat educated several generations of students. Some of them now belong to the top of the contemporary Indonesian art world. Fortunately the artist produced, besides his role as art teacher, a huge amount of paintings, drawings and graphics of high quality.In the Indonesian art world critics always mention the “Three Pioneers” of modern Indonesian painting: Affandi, Hendra and Sudjojono. The oeuvre of these painters was connected with the nationalist movement against the Dutch government. The content of their work was realistic, emotional and expressive. Lately it has been suggested that the artist Widayat should be incorporated as the “Fourth Pioneer” of modern Indonesian art. His unique, “magic-decorative” art certainly deserves that place in Indonesian Art History.Dr Helena SpanjaardArt historianPublica