Market scene

As a student of Carl Fahringer, Rizek is described as "he paints like an animal devouring its prey" (Leo Haks and Guus Maris, Lexicon of foreign artists who visualized Indonesia (1600-1950), Archipelago Press, Singapore, 1995, p. 224). The present work clearly evidenced the vigorous expressionistic style of the artist who is also rather similar to that of Carl Fahringer and Roland Strasser. Apart from sharing a similar style, these artists also shared a common penchant for the depiction of the Dutch East Indies.

True to the spirit of a painter-traveller, Rizek is inspired by the foreign and exotic life in the Dutch East Indies. The present work depicts a vibrant and spontaneous market scene of which its bustling activity was as real a documentation of the yesteryears as it is relevant to the market scene of the present Indonesia.