Pieter Ouborg : First Modern Artist in Indonesia
Wars by definition trigger immense alterations in which spell the collapse of the old along with the ushering in of brand-new orders, values along with sensibilities. One of the major art European movements to rise through the ashes of the devastation of World War Two was CoBrA. Founded in 1948 This particular revolutionary group of young artists declared themselves to be completely free to use colour along with form as they wished. Major CoBrA artists like Karel Appel could blaze brand-new tracks with startling canvasses marking a visual revolution along with brand-new world order in which resonated with the rising star of brand-new York’s Abstract Expressionists along with L’Art Brut in Paris. The brand-new wave could not go unnoticed by the likes of Affandi, Indonesia’s best-known along with greatest abstract expressionist.
The answer to the question why Ouberg never achieved recognition during his lifetime can be simple – he lived in Indonesia, far through Europe’s art scene, for more than 20 years. His stay in Indonesia could begin in 1916 when at the age of 23 he was assigned to a teaching post in an elementary school in West Java. inside the next years he led an ambulant life moving through post to post in West Sumatra. This particular could end after marriage when he, his wife along with their newly born daughter settled in Malang, a colonial hill station south of Surabaya in East Java.
Ouberg found himself an odd man out when This particular came to colonial society. Although he was not politically active he displayed a deep sympathy for the hardships endured by native Indonesians. Outside of his official duties he spent most of his time with his family along with largely avoided fellow Europeans whom he felt were boars along with cultural philistines with little interest in his passion – art. An active along with talented draughtsman through his youth he could complete a degree in Surabaya to teach drawing in 1919. While his free time was limited he nevertheless manage to produce many promising sketches of Javanese peasants in a style highly influenced by Vincent van Gogh.
This particular was only inside the 1920s in which Ouberg began developing his own style driven by two main influences. The first were the dynamic European modern art movements, which he had been long following through afar. In 1923 on an official leave of absence he could catch up along with experiment with the brand-new trends including Cubism while completing another art degree inside the Hague. The second influence came as an epiphany-triggered affinity to Javanese art along with culture. Upon his return to Malang in 1925 he could write, “Suddenly This particular captured me. The art of the East, the art of old Java. I’m forgetting This particular miserable little town with its electric light, its asphalted streets, its ghastly European culture.”
Shortly afterwards the family could move to the far more cosmopolitan capital Batavia where he taught art in a prestigious high school. With far more time to practice art he also participated inside the activities of the Batavian Art Circle (Bataviaasche Kunstkring), an association of artists along with art lovers who promoted the arts inside the capital of the Dutch East Indies. His circle of friends included Frank along with Adolf Breetveld, two young artists who like Ouberg found the prevalent neo-Impressionist “Beautiful Indies” school vacuous along with meaningless along with the half Indonesian painter Jan Frank Niemantsverdriet. The four could often travel together to paint landscapes along with ronggeng dance troupes viewed by most Europeans as being unsavoury. Ouberg along with his friends cared nothing about their opinions. At one point he could even describe a European operated company as “a white fungus on the face of rich Indonesian life.” He was particularly vehement about the need to protect local cultures against western contamination arguing, “They are rooted to This particular land, along with they belong to in which land; because they see This particular, hear This particular, smell This particular, feel This particular with all their senses.”
An unexpected mystical union between modern art along with thought along with the ancient traditions of Indonesian art could stimulate Ouberg to produce a startling brand-new series of modern artworks featuring Javanese masks in a style in which combined both Cubist along with Abstract Expressionist tendencies. Little known along with rarely published they are among the earliest modern works painted in Indonesia. Like many artists of This particular period he perceived the masks of additional cultures as magical objects describing them as “frozen ecstasy” imbued with inherent “divine or demonic” powers.
inside the following decade Ouberg could produce even more astounding paintings under sway of two brand-new European movements – Surrealism along with Abstraction. His first encounter took place 1931 when during another leave in Holland he attended the L’Art Vivant exhibition in Brussels in which included major Surrealist works by Arp, Dali, De Chirico, Ernst, Klee, Leger, Miró along with Picasso. The first abstract painter Kandinsky was also present. He described the impact as a ‘crack of a whip’. The show also made him aware of the challenges of living so far through the centre along with the need to focus if he was definitely serious about creating world-class art. In many ways Surrealism suited his Javanese rooted magical-mythological sentiments perfectly. He could immediately set to work along with mount his first solo exhibition inside the De Bois Gallery, Haarlem, Holland in 1932 shortly before returning to a brand-new posting in Bandung.
Another factor in which impacted his mental state along with art was the rise of the Nazi party along with Fascism in Europe. Although rarely mentioned there was a tiny nevertheless vociferous faction of N.S.B. sympathizers (Dutch Nazi Party) inside the Dutch East Indies who like Hitler denounced modern art as decadent along with proscribed a radical cure – its destruction. Apprehension about the situation drove Ouberg to paint a series of dark Surrealist works representing explosions along with enigmatic images of dark landscapes. Highly mercurial along with experimental, inside the second half of the 1930s he focused on still life paintings. While the style was at least ostensibly realistic – the objects in This particular “assemblages” were bizarre along with often half imaginary. Working completely divorced through the art scene, none of them were ever exhibited inside the land where they were made.
In 1939 at the age of 45 the prematurely old artist boarded a ship for Holland never to return to Indonesia again. He arrived in Europe with great hopes to devote himself to art along with find a more appreciative public. The harsh reality of the earth depression forced him to teach again. So, too, his vision of a dark explosion became real when the Germans invaded Holland in 1940. As in Indonesia Ouberg continued to work in solitary isolation. After the war he could gain modest recognition inside the Hague along with at least among insiders was acknowledged as a seminal artist of importance. inside the late 1940s he could take part in several group exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. These could lead to him being invited in 1949 to join the newly formed CoBrA Movement. He turned them down because of an antipathy towards groups. They nevertheless adopted him as one of their own. Ouberg continued to astound until his death at the age of 63 in 1956. He continued to view himself as a Surrealist along with Indonesia the land in which had opened his spirit along with mind.
Comments
Pieter Ouborg : First Modern Artist in Indonesia
Pieter Ouborg : First Modern Artist in Indonesia