To the market place I

It is noted that women were often the main actors in Hendra's painitng. Women dressing in the traditional batik served as the artist's palette demonstratng his unique sense of colours. A critic has once commented that "Hendra's women are nourishing, nursing, mothering beauties, voluptuously busty, their undulating bodies wrapped in bright-coloured cloth. Their forms are echoed by the form of papayas, often competing with strutting eggplants and cucumbers. They are young and their long graceful arms, exaggerating the elegant hand-movements that are so typically Indonesian, contrasting with their thick feet with wide-spaced toes - the feet of villagers and farmers." (Astri Wright, Painting the People)
The women in the present lot were aptly described by the above quotation, characteristically Hendra was celebrating the female beauty and strength; placing them amidst the scattered fruits he was playing tribute to their role as the maintainers of life and nature.