Sidharta FIne Art Auction 10 December 2017 | An Homage to Arie Smit (15 April 1916 – 23 March 2016) (lots #142-145)

 

Lot 142

 

Lot 143

 

Lot 144

Lot 145

  
An Homage to Arie Smit (15 April 1916 – 23 March 2016) (lots #142-145)

Dutch-born Indonesian artist Arie Smit passed away on 23 March 2016, just less than a month shy of his 100th birthday. Born in Zandaam, The Netherlands, in 1916, in the middle of the first World War, it was his dream and life long goal to gain complete freedom by becoming an artist. Ironically, the young Arie Smit arrived in Indonesia in 1938 on military contract, and was assigned to the Topographical Service. Following the Japanese occupation in 1942, as a prisoner of war, he was taken into forced labor camps in Singapore, Thailand, and Burma. Yet, after the Dutch finally acknowledged Indonesia's sovereignty in 1949, Arie Smit chose to remain in the new republic and became an Indonesian citizen as early as 1951.

By 1955, he had already held three solo exhibitions, at the Kolff in Jakarta, the BPM in Plaju, Palembang, and in Bandung. Yet, he only decided to become a full time painter in 1956, when he came to Bali upon painter Rudolf Bonnet and art connoisseur and dealer James Pandy's invitation. Although the trip to Bali was supposed to be a relatively brief visit, the painter decided to stay on the island, apparently for good, as he has remained there for almost half a century now. Yet, Arie could not stay still in a single place in Bali. While remaining on the island of Bali, he moved from one place to another: Ubud, Campuhan, Sanur, Tanjung Bungkak near Denpasar, Singaraja, and even Lovina Beach.

Since the 1970s, Arie Smit painted using mosaics of color that are brushed onto the canvas in rapid strokes. “My colors do not clash, they blend. Lines do not divide but unite,” he further asserted. The artist’s spontaneous brush strokes, applied to outline or highlight the shapes and forms in his paintings in this period, often elicit a vibrant effect. “The brush strokes move and move. They create the life of the painting,” he affirms. The outlines of the forms of architecture, as well as the effects of the wind’s motion on the vegetation around the temple, all animate the nuance of the painting. Arie Smit’s works reflected his vibrant activities, constantly moving around the island and not being able to remain still at one place.

Arie finally decided to move back to Ubud in 1989, after living in Singaraja for four years, when Suteja Neka offered Arie Smit to stay at his Villa Sanggingan Bungalows, situated not far from the Neka Museum in Sanggingan. Arie accepted this kind offer. Starting in 1990 he settled in at his new home, after having moved at least thirty times throughout the thirty-four years of his time in Bali. He was at last somewhere for good.

While it seemed that he was going to retire, the artist continued to be productive and creative for over another decade. Until juat a few years ago, even after an eye cataract operation, he still painted in his studio, using his memories of the scenes that he has accumulated throughout almost half a century of his life on the Island of Bali. Sadly, in the last few years of his life the artist chose to stop painting, spending his days quietly lying in bed. Although his memory still remained sharp as a razor, and physically he remains quite strong,  it seems that his failing eyesight is the reason that he was no longer interested in searching for light and colors. He seemed to have desperately waited for his ultimate freedom.