Mother and child

Known as one of the people's artist along with Affandi and Sudjojono, Hendra celebrates 'real people' on his canvas. By 1980 when the present work was painted, the artist had moved to Bali and his works mainly depicted the Balinese landscape with the beach scene as one of his favourites. The Balinese period was going to be the artist's last and it was a period which his works celebrates the life of common folk with an exuberance of colours, developed since his imprisonment.

Mother and child was an old theme, constantly revisited throughout the artist's career and the present work contains the quintessential elements of Hendra's, namely the juxtaposition of the celebrated subject and a poetic landscape. Very often, the celebratory nature of the work is accentuated with the grandiose of the background as observed by Dr. Astri Wright "Most of Hendra's paintings include a natural setting as background to his main subjects, and these vistas, though secondary to the main subject of the painting, are poetic creations of a fierce romance with the land." (Dr. Astri Wright 'Hendra Gunawan: Styles, Themes and Vision' in Hendra Gunawan: A Great Modern Indonesian Painter, Ir. Ciputra Foundation, Jakarta, 2001, p. 60).

With the majestic setting of a both realistic and expressionistic landscape, the multiple roles of the woman as a life-giver and a source of love and pleasure took the center stage.