MAJALAH SENI RUPA - VISUAL ARTS # 21. October / November 2007 BANDUNG Soemardja Gallery, Bandung
In recent development of fine arts, abstract painting seems to quietly leave some problems. Soemardja Gallery, the heir to the “Bandungism”, floats in the problems through Hansen’s solo exhibition, “Immutable Objects”, that took place August, 10—27. In discussion of abstract painting and in connection with the West—East relation, Esai Aminudin Th Siregar (director of Soemardja Gallery) describes that “the truth West—East abstract” are exposed by Hansen’s works. Interestingly enough, this exposure is possible by the fact that Hansen’s paintings in this exhibition are not “pure abstract.” Many years ago the alumni of the Faculty of Fine Arts of Bandung Institute of Technology are criticized. One of the critics is that the visual style is not nationalist. “Bandung devoted West Laboratory”, becomes such a strong phrase. Why was at that time no struggle from “Bandungism”? It seems that the struggle was not possible due to the political constraint at that time. When the situation went back to normal, it was not hard to recognize that the conclusion of non-nationalism is because of the formalist style was not match with the dominant style that was being propagandized—the style that shown art devotion to people.

Sudjoko once quoted from Professor Priyono, the Minister of Education, in 1962. Priyono said that the style that is too faraway from realism, especially abstract, can only be understood by a few educated people. Sudjoko then showed that there were narrow-minded views. Bandung at that time was not governed by the formalist style. There were various styles being practiced in Bandung. Bandung was pluralist when Indonesian arts were governed by political adage as the commander. That was possibly the “mistake” of Bandung. Aminudin also quoted Trisno Sumardjo (TS). He argued with Sudjodjono by saying that in the past the art in Indonesia is filled of many deformation styles as shown on shadows puppet, relieves, statues, and Bali style paintings. “Aren’t these styles faraway from realism?”, said TS. In this case Sudjoko agrees with TS. Furthermore, Sudjoko said that the influence of the media such as newspapers, advertisements, films, and televisions have made people to love mirrored and equally shaped pictures. Sudjoko stressed on the pre-camera time when people were painting not to achieve equally or identically shaped picture. The arts transformation in the level of nirada (non-existence) is a normal process.

However, remember that TS too gave the term “West Laboratory” to the Bandung club. So, it is possible that TS criticism is neither about the cubism style nor abstract that at that time practiced by many at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Bandung Institute of Technology. TS was discussing forgetfulness until he saw the Bandung club painting exhibition at that time shown more remembrance of European cubism and no remembrance of what happened in Indonesia at all. In conclusion, it is the time that if the abstract paintings here differs from the ones that grows in Europe—America because Indonesia has its own abstract. Return to Hansen, it is clear that his paintings are not in the same line with the willingness to free canvas from narration. Hansen explores various exposures of oil characters with brush movement, scratches, spots, and drops combined with geometrical shapes. In this exploration he shown us the many objects form that we can recognize. There are silhouette of glasses, bottles, bowls, teapots, and so on. The combination looks very controlled. This shows an ambivalent behavior. This ambivalence according to Aminudin is interesting because it can expose the behavior of abstract paintings in Indonesia.

According to Clement Greenberg, every art must expose the uniqueness of its natural medium. The boundaries that constitute paintings medium—the flatten surface, the shape of the easel, the oil property—are the obliged gift of the paintings. Hansen, on one side, seems to process the oil uniqueness and canvas rectangular shape. However, in trying to purify his paintings as described by Greenberg, Hansen purposely shown silhouette of ordinary items. That way he brought the daily world and invited it to our remembrance when facing with his paintings. The canvas field is not a sole world. Is this the abstract paintings behavior in Indonesia: inviting remembrance about the live on the canvas? [V] Heru Hikayat