Srihadi Soedarsono was an Indonesian artist recognised for his abstracted landscapes and animated depictions of classical Javanese and Balinese dancers. In 1959, Srihadi designed the logo for the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).
Read MoreBorn in 1931 in Surakarta, Srihadi's life and work overlapped with the modern history of Indonesia. As a youth, the artist was involved with Seniman Indonesia Muda (Young Indonesian Artists' Collective) and gained a reputation for illustrating resistance posters along with fellow artists such as Affandi and S. Sudjojono.
Srihadi studied at the University of Indonesia Bandung, now the ITB, between 1952 and 1959. After graduation he went on to attend Ohio State University, where he encountered Abstract Expressionism and Colour Field Painting. There, Srihadi received his MA in 1962.
A concern with spiritual transcendence resonates throughout Srihadi's paintings, based on the Javanese word rasa that encompasses intuition, instinct, knowledge, and physical and emotional feeling. Employing gestural brushstrokes and vivid colour palettes, Srihadi portrays the energy and spirituality of his subjects in landscape and figurative paintings.
Landscapes are simplified into horizons of colours in Srihadi's paintings. Their simple forms recall the work of Abstract Expressionist and Colour Field painters such as Mark Rothko and Hans Hoffman, while being inspired by Indonesian landscapes and rendered in Sirhadi's sweeping, gestural brushstrokes.
Among the recurring motifs in Srihadi's landscapes are flat horizons and celestial bodies that radiate a sense of stillness. In the oil painting Horizon, Boat and Sun (1988), the canvas is divided roughly into half, with an intense blue sky over pale sand. The irregular shape of the boat, painted in light brown in the bottom right corner of the painting, contrasts with the orange sun that weighs down on the world from the centre of the sky.
Srihadi's paintings of dancers are drawn from Javanese and Balinese dance including bedoyo, a ritualised dance associated with courts of Yogyakarta and Surakarta; legong, a Balinese dance known for its expressive gestures; and janger, a popular social dance from Bali.
Multiple dancers typically occupy the canvas as with the three dancers facing outwards in Bedoyo Ketawang-Moment of Contemplation (2016). In identical poses and dresses, the dancers emerge from and merge with the dark background in their black bodices and crimson, flame-like skirts. Two dancers face each other against a field of bright orange in Legong Condong-The Energy of Love (2015), in which Srihadi captures the vivacity of their facial expressions and bodily gestures with visible brushstrokes.
Upon returning to Indonesia from the United States, Srihadi also worked as an educator, teaching at the Fine Arts Department at the ITB, where he also served as the Head of Department, and Jakarta Institute of Arts.
Srihadi Soedarsono's work has been shown internationally in solo and group exhibitions.
Solo exhibitions include: Man x Universe, National Gallery of Indonesia (2020); 70 Years Journey of Roso, National Gallery of Indonesia (2016); Retrospective 80th Anniversary Exhibition, Art:1 New Museum Jakarta (2012); Srihadi Soedarsono: Tracing Horizons, STPI, Singapore (2005).
Group exhibitions include: Sketsaforia Urban, National Gallery of Indonesia (2019); Jati Diri: Periskop Sejarah Seni Rupa Indonesia, Museum Seni Rupa & Keramik, Jakarta (2016); CUBISM IN ASIA: Unbound Dialogues, National Museum of Art, Tokyo, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, and Singapore Art Museum (2005—2006).
Sherry Paik | Ocula | 2022
