Borobudur: nature in meditation

Srihadi painted Borobudur many times. One may look alike to another, but if one looks carefully, one would notice how minute differences are carefully accentuated and very often, it is these differences that hint at how the artist was perceiving his immediate subject in that particular work. Colours are used in the most arbitrary manner to suggest the different mood and atmosphere of the painting. A dark blue hue would suggest the engulfing darkness in the night with the artist deftly placing a strip of white in the horizon hinting at the rising sun, or a different shade of blue would be used to suggest the quietness of the night that is harmonized by the moon, discernible only with the faint purplish light that outlined its silhouette.

With the present work, the meditative nature of the work is highlighted as the title implies. Although in its abstraction, the grandeur of the monument is non-mistakable. Built in the 8th century, Borobudur is of Buddhist architecture in Java, that in both its shape and structure, depicts the path to nirvana and deliverance from earthly desire. As pilgrims ascend the monument, they symbolically as well as spiritually follow the path towards enlightenment. The attainment of enlightenment which is at the highest level of the monument is attainable with meditation.

Although there are many variants of his connotative Borobudur, the spiritual and meditative nature of the monument is the most important to the artist. As with the present lot, the emphasis is on the mysterious, meditative power and the monument is reduced to a discernible, albeit abstracted form, that aptly conveys a transcendental mood that corresponds to the golden principle of Buddhism - the detachment of earthly possessions and desires.