拍品 48

The Private Collection of Ibu Rooslila A. Tahir The Classics of a Time This collection of 26 works stands as a testimony to a lifetime of dedication and passion for the arts, mingled with a nationalistic sentiment for a Republic newly born in 1945. A native of Aceh, Ibu Rooslila A. Tahir was married to Achmad Tahir. Endowed with diverse interests and talents, she was a soprano singer in Medan and worked as the secretary for Adi Nugroho, a famous journalist during the Japanese Occupation of the colony. In the 1950s the family moved to Jakarta and thence began an active period of collecting for Ibu Tahir, financially it was not particularly easy time for her to collect but she bought paintings on credit terms, purely driven by her own love for the art. S. Sudjojono was amongst the first artists she met and she befriended Abdul Aziz when both of them were living in Italy in the late 50s. Their shared interests in music and art were a strong foundation for a profound friendship and she acquired a few of the early works of the artist dated from his Italian period. She also met Dullah in Surabaya, Sudarso in Magelang and tried whenever she could to travel to meet artists and acquire their works. Although Ibu Tahir travelled abroad extensively, living at various times in art capitals such as New York (1966) and Paris (1970s), she did not acquire any work of foreign artists but persisted in her collection of exclusive Modern Indonesian artists. Her theme of collecting is simple: to concentrate on works representational of the development of art history in Indonesia in 1945. Sudarso, the painter was a trusted advisor and she often discussed the art with another collector Dr. Niswanti. Most noteworthy is her intimate relationship with one of President Soekarno's wives, Ibu Fatmawati and it is probable that the taste of the President, who was and still is one of the most important and influential collectors of Indonesian art filtered through his wife and influenced Ibu Tahir. In this respect, the collection stands as an interesting ensemble that reveals insight into the early art patronage in a nascent Indonesian art market. The art historian Soedarso S.P. once commented that 'Modern Indonesian visual art was born in a rush'; in fact, the birth of modern painting in Indonesia is synchronous with the birth of the nationalist movement. It was the same ideas, the same fervent, the same awakening from centuries of dependency on foreign powers that nurtured the acute need of independence as well as a clear definition of Indonesian identity. Works of Affandi, S. Sudjojono and Hendra were all responses to the crying need of a generation in facing an erosion of traditional values and cultures. The depiction of the Barong dance or the market scene by Abdul Aziz were attempts made by the artist to record the essence of 'Indonesianess'. Looking at the disparate styles as presented by the whole collection, it is almost impossible to coin a single term for the artistic preference of the collector. It includes the expressionist style of Sudjojono, the equally expressionistic but much more flamboyant Affandi, Man Fong's lyrical style of Chinese painting and the distinct Balinese flavoured works of Dullah and Abdul Aziz. Perhaps this rich selection of works is best surmised in essence with the sculptural work depicting a scene authentically indigenous Mencari Kutu, a subject that has touched a chord with many of the Modern Indonesian artists in satisfying their yearning for an identity. In short, it embodies the aesthetics, the meaning and the Classics of the Time.

S. SUDJOJONO (Indonesia 1914-1986)

Mawar-mawar putih (White roses)

细节

S. SUDJOJONO (Indonesia 1914-1986)
Mawar-mawar putih (White roses)
signed, dated and titled 'S. Sudjojono, 1959' (upper right)
oil on canvas
28 x 23 in. (70 x 59 cm)

拍品专文

Compared to the artist's 1976 sparingly painted Kenangan hari Perkawinan: Memory of wedding day, the present lot has a fuller compositional structure as Sudjojono depicts the roses at a close-up angle, filling the canvas with graduating shades of whites and reds, against a background of frosty greyish-blue.

In Memory of wedding day, the decorative element is accentuated with long and fine stalks, cutting the composition into various smaller sections with a centralising focal point on the vase and the bunch of flowers. A seemingly precarious balance is attained with the outstretching stalks decorated with dots of whitish and reddish flowers. Interestingly, a similar balance is attained with the present lot although the compositional structure is vastly different.

In White roses, Sudjojono gives equal importance to 4 sections of the canvas, expressionistic in style, the roses are poetically rather than realistically painted. The poetic fragments of the composition succeeds in achieving the synthesis of natural elements but the artist has omitted the fine details of nature. Hence, the roses' petals are a deliberation of raw colours rather than the well-mixed, graduating shades of tonality of academic still life.

Lacking an obvious focal point as exemplified by Memory of wedding day, the White roses subtly draws the attention of the viewer to the top-centre section of the canvas. Interestingly, the painting is titled as such though Sudjojono also painted red roses at the side of the composition.