Basoeki Abdullah
From the Property of a Gentleman
Lots #139 & 140
This year marks the centennial of the birth
of Indonesian realist Basoeki Abdullah (Solo, C. Java, 1915 – Jakarta 1993. As
evidenced by the number of his works are present in his album of art
collections, Basoeki Abdullah was clearly President Sukarno’s favorite painter.
While the President banned Western style Indonesian music, which he labeled ““musik ngak-ngik-ngok” and even went as
far as imprisoning them musicians, Basoeki’s renditions of beauty (landscapes
and women) done in style of painting, instead, seemed to enchant him.
Here we present
two paintings by Basoeki Abdullah, that have come from a collection which was
initially started in the 1950s, not long after the recognition of Indonesia as
a sovereign nation. During that time, it seemed common for the master to employ
different stylistic approaches when painting different genres. The painting of
water buffaloes in a natural landscape (lot #139) was painted using a looser,
rather impressionistic brushwork. Meanwhile, the painting of a woman in the
nude with child (lot #140) is painted more meticulously and delicately and set
in scene constructed through his imagination. Here the nudity is clearly far
from any tendency toward pornography; instead it presents a certain innocence
and beauty that is naïve and yet almost divine in quality.
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