蘇加那·克爾頓

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直接購自藝術家

Amiruddin Siregar, Sejarah Terpisah Sudjana Kerton dalam Seni Rupa Modern Indonesia, Sanggar Luhur, Bandung, Indonesia, 2003, p. 92

Jim Supangkat, Hilda Soemantri, Jean Couteau, Amita Sarwal, Indonesian Heritage: Visual Art, Didier Millet, Archipelago Press, Singapore, 1998, p.73

The work is in good condition overall, as is the canvas, which is clear and sound. There is light wear and handling on the margins of the painting, along with associated craquelures and undulations of the canvas. Upon close observation, faint networks of craquelures are evident predominantly on the faces and bodies of the figures (top register), lower left corner (yellow paint) and bottom right quadrant. Examination ultraviolet light reveals no sign of restoration. Framed.
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Sudjana Kerton’s oeuvre may be read as a visual recording of Indonesia’s emergence from it’s colonialist past to the independence of the country. Throughout his career the artist was dedicated to portraying the lives of the local people within the context of his paintings. It was the artist’s commitment to capture human relations with an honest eye that established Kerton as an important part of the country’s creative legacy.  

Akin with other like artists of that era, Kerton’s oeuvre provides a discourse on self-identity amidst the governmental turmoil and economical influx that coloured much of Indonesia’s early years of independence. However he did not solely focus his attention on political activism, for the artist’s works represent a man who was fascinated by social interactions, and the principles that made up a population to be viewed as a living entity defined by specific constructs and beliefs.

A defining moment in Kerton’s career was when he travelled to Europe and America in the early fifties to the mid-sixties. These experiences overseas provided him with the opportunity to study Western modern art, as well as strengthen his own visual vocabulary as a painter. He particularly liked Cubist and Abstract Expressionist aesthetics, for they provided him with a new perspective that he could then incorporate into his Indonesian-inspired artworks. During his time abroad the artist spent a few years in New York City with his family, and subsequently remained there till 1976 when he returned to Indonesia.

The present painting Punk Rock was created a few years after Kerton’s return to Indonesia. However the American culture and youth movement were still fresh in his mind, as is evident with the artist’s choice themes and subject matter found in the narrative. Three men who dominate the composition, with one sporting a Mohawk, are shown standing on the street corner idling the afternoon away with conversation. Next to them is a woman looking through a hawker’s goods, her attire and physical posture vastly different from the individuals watching her.

Punk Rock is a fascinating work from Kerton, who till then was largely defined by the public as a patriotic artist, with his oeuvre grounded in Indonesia’s iconography. The present piece breaks down these notions, and redefines Kerton as an artist who embraced the painting medium as way to connect with a greater part of society. Punk Rock provides an exciting look into the artist’s mentality, and the foreign modes of expression that he felt a personal kinship for. It may be implied that the work is slightly reminiscent of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s street art driven aesthetics, and underground culture motifs that became a social commentary of a specific period in America’s history.

Therefore Kerton’s painting plays with these cultural anomalies, and is ultimately a celebration of the American punk youth culture, as revered by the artist for their diversity and revolutionary ideals, all of which is distinctly captured in the vibrant narrative. Created ten years prior to the artist’s passing, the work stands alone as an important part of the artist’s oeuvre. On one level the painting is an urban study of the artist’s sojourns. However as a visual discourse of a city where he was seen as a foreigner, Punk Rock subsequently transforms into a personal memory of Kerton’s time as stranger in a strange land.