巴索奇·阿都拉

Gifted from President Sukarno to the late Mr. Ali Sadikin
Private Collection, Indonesia

This work is in good overall condition as viewed. There is evidence of light wear along the edges of the work, due to abrasions with the frame, but this does not take away from the overall image. Examination under ultraviolet light reveals areas of restoration at the edges of the painting, especially the center of the right edge. Examination under ultraviolet light also shows very few, tiny, minor and sporadic spots visible throughout the surface of the painting. Framed.
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Indonesia’s lush topography has featured prominently in paintings. Partly a muse to aspiring painters, the landscape also served as a reminder of the country’s rich heritage and history. Raden Basoeki Abdullah was a Javanese artist who revered the physical beauty of the archipelago, his paintings seen as grand depictions of the landscape, flora and fauna, and local people. His oeuvre provides insight into colonialist rule from the early 19^th century and onwards. Abdullah’s decision to represent the country in such romanticized manner alludes to the Mooi Indie (Beautiful Indies) style that was fashionable in Indonesian art from this period.

A local artist whose aesthetics reflected the European master painters, Abdullah was classically trained at the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (Royal Academy of Visual Arts) in the Netherlands from 1935 to 1937. It is no surprise that his works reference the moods and colors of the Dutch realist painters. Equally talented in portraiture and landscape paintings, Basoeki Abdullah created an oeuvre that remained faithful to his quest for romantic beauty and he sought to emulate this ideal throughout his career.  The present piece entitled Lake perfectly demonstrates the artist’s talents in landscape painting.

As shown in the current painting Abdullah portrays the Indonesian landscape as a sweeping, awe-inspiring narrative. Both nationalistic and sentimental in context, Abdullah’s painting dramatizes the physical environment to touch upon the audience’s emotions. As it should be noted that the lake in the self-titled work is not merely a body of water, but represents a much larger part of the country’s eco-system. Therefore the painting is homage to the physical landscape, a monumental work that highlights the relationship between humans and their environment.