SIDHartA Auctioneer Blog | auction house "behind the scenes": Sidharta Fine Art Auction August 3, 2019

Basoeki Abdullah's Potret Ibu Mayar Sari

Basoeki Abdullah was a painter who was particularly famous for his paintings of women. He was known for idealizing and beautifying the female figures he portrayed.

The painter's reinterpretation of Sukarno's painting of Pantai Flores and his portrayal of Fatmawati, Sukarno's wife, are among the first artworks that Sukarno collected. Basoeki Abdullah's works appear prominently in the collection of President Sukarno, making it quite clear he was the President's most favorite artist.

Unlike most of the maestro's portraits of women, Potret Ibu Mayar Sari does not feature an idealized nor beautified female figure. The woman is not posed to accentuate her soft and/or elegant feminine qualities.

While she is dressed in a traditional Indonesian kebaya top over a batik bottom, she is rendered sitting in a sturdy wooden chair. With one arm placed on an armrest, she faces the viewer at a slight angle. Although she is clearly the one and only subject of the painting, she makes herself clear that she refuses to become the object of the painting. Instead, she seems to be attentively viewing the painter and the viewers, claiming her position equal to them.

Perhaps Potret Ibu Mayar Sari is idealized afterall. Having learnt from Sukarno's Sarinah, it is a portrait of Basoeki Abdullah's ideal Indonesian woman. Without having to dress in modern western attire, Ibu Mayar Sari is independent, confident, strong, and ready to take on the challenges she faces, particularly personal identity, interpersonal relationships, gender equality, and modernization.