UMAR SUMARTA

Horse on Red, 2000, oil on canvas, 95 x 95 cm.

Umar Sumarta was born in Sumedang, a small town in West Java close to Bandung in 1948. The religion in this small village reflects a mixture of Islam interwoven with old Sundanese (West Java) animistic traditions. Umar derives his creativity from these Sundanese traditions. One of his major themes is horses. According to tradition, mystic ceremonies were held in the neighboring village of Renggang to celebrate marriages and circumcisions. The Pawang (transl. endowed with magic powers) commanded horses that were chosen as centerpieces for these ceremonies to go into a trance and dance in honor of the Dewi Sri, the goddess of prosperity. This ceremony is known as Kuda Renggong (transl. Renggong Horse). Painting this mystical horse is understood as a meditative act in which the artist recreates the mystical creature with the proper respect for the old traditions.

Umar’s Horse on Red shows all compositional elements that are reflected in his other depictions of Kuda Renggong. The horse is in profile showing its teeth. It is created of intricate geometric forms. The palette is reduced to red and blue tones with white highlights. The background is unified, only the ground is composed in a pattern. The intricate pattern reflects the same meditative quality that captures the reader of the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript produced in Iona, Scotland, in the late 8th or early 9th century. Umar Sumarta studied at Bandung’s Art Academy (IKIP). He is a representative of the Bandung school of thought. The Bandung artists are influenced by abstract art focusing on pure forms, often employing a Cubist style of painting.

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X-LING

Gamelan I, 2000, pencil drawing, 56 x 43 cm.
Gamelan II, 2000, pencil drawing, 56 x 43 cm.
Gamelan III, 2000, pencil drawing, 56 x 43 cm.
Gamelan IV, 2000, pencil drawing, 56 x 43 cm.
Selamat Datang (Welcome), 2000, pencil drawing, 56 x 43 cm.
Pasar Burung (Bird Market), 2000, pencil drawing, 56 x 43 cm.
Indian Goddess and Chinese Writing, 2000, pencil drawing, 41 x 53 cm.
Buddha and Chinese Writing, 2000, pencil drawing, 41 x 53 cm.

X-Ling was born in Wonosobo, central Java, in 1935. He studied drawing, painting and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Solo, central Java. Solo (also called Surakarta) is considered the rivaling sister city of Yogyakarta. It offers two large palaces, music and dance academies, galleries, theaters, extensive markets and traditional crafts. It is still very much a Javanese stronghold and the least westernized city on Java with bustling life in the streets night and day.

After graduating from the Art Academy, X-Ling went to Palembang on South Sumatra. He taught drawing at various schools from 1960 to 1985. He then returned to the island of Java where he now lives and draws in Jakarta. X-Ling is of a free bohemian spirit. He loves to travel through villages and cities his sketch book at hand. X-Ling is a talented discrete observer who is able to capture the atmosphere of a situation and the essence of people in his drawings.

The four Gamelan scenes show the musicians playing their instruments. Gamelan is the name for orchestras of a variety of xylophonic or gong-type instruments that produce tones when struck with mallets. The majority of the instruments are metallic, enhanced by bamboo, wooden and string instruments. The orchestra is usually composed of about a dozen musicians, but can have as many as 70 to 80. The music produced cannot be compared with the great mathematically based compositions by Western composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach. Indonesian Gamelan music is freer, loser and unpredictable. "Gamelan is comparable to only two things, moonlight and flowing water. It is pure and mysterious like moonlight and always changing like flowing water. It is a state of being, such as moonlight itself which lies poured out over the land."

The musician in Gamelan I plays the bonang that consists of a number of kettlegongs. The musicians in Gamelan II play a plucked zither on the left and a drum on the right. In Gamelan III, there is a drummer in the foreground and gongs in the background. Gamelan IV shows a xylophone in the foreground and a bonang in the background.

The instruments on exhibition are Gamelan instruments from Indonesia that could be used in a small Gamelan orchestra.

 

 

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Compare to Kuda Renggong, 1990, oil on canvas, 89 x 50 cm, Private collection, New Zealand; for an reproduction see www.javafred.com/umar.