Srihadi Soedarsono (1931)

A Dutch landscape with a mill in the distance / Gezicht op Arnhem

signed and dated 'Shrihadi 77' (lower centre)

oil on canvas, 70x70 cm

Exhibited:
-Jakarta, Galeri Baru Lantai (TIM), Pameran Lukisan Srihadi, 15-20 November 1978 (most likely) or possibly the Erasmushuis Jakarta, around the same period.*

Provenance:
-Collection of a former diplomat of the Dutch embassy in Jakarta 1975-1980, who (most likely) bought the painting at the above mentioned exhibition.

*In November 2020 Venduehuis The Hague sold two other lots of Srihadi from the same owner. These were most definitively exhibited at TIM, however it is not clear if the present lot is mentioned in the catalogue or shown in the exposition. According to the owner he bought this lot at TIM or at the Erasmushuis.

In this auction Venduehuis The Hague offers a third and last Srihadi painting from the same collection as the two Srihadi paintings that were sold in het last November 2020 sale. As was the case last November, this lot was most likely first displayed at a solo exhibition by Srihadi Soedarsono at the Jakarta Art Center in 1978. Ajip Rosidi, head of the Jakarta Art Center wrote: “Srihadi Soedarsono always offered his latest creation and invention in paintings at every exhibition … and there would always be a surprise!”.

Srihadi Soedarsono was born in Solo in 1931. He studied at the Bandung Institute of Technology from 1952 to 1959, where he learned modernism as well as western art tradition and techniques from Ries Mulder, a lecturer at the time. In 1962, Srihadi completed his Master of Arts at the Ohio State University in the United States. It was there, that he became fascinated with the works of Mark Rothko (1903-1970), especially his use of color to exude, project and convey emotions. In the present lots, Rothko’s influence is refined and combined with Srihadi’s Javanese background and philosophy of looking for perfection. In Srihadi’s own words: “I try to reach infinity … and … it is with color that I get closer or farther with what I feel and watch.”

Srihadi’s wife Farida Soedarsono studied at the famous Gerrit Rietveldt Kunstacademie in Amsterdam from 1976 to 1978 and it was during this time that Srihadi visited Keukenhof and eternalized the landscape of tulips into the painting offered here.

Like the two paintings sold last year, this painting is part of his early exploration of horizons, the infinity of distance, and the limits and the essence of landscape. They also reflect his newfound interest in Zen meditation. He remarks that “my paintings are not landscapes. I am not interested in painting landscapes and never have been.” Instead, he absorbed the beauty of the landscape, the expansive vistas of multicolour beds of the tulip gardens at Keukenhof, or as is the case here, a landscape near Arnhem. In search of simplicity, he extracted the peace and harmony, the anguish and vigor of the wind and displayed them in blocks of colours, reminiscent of Rothko.

Like the two previously sold 'Keukenhof' paintings this work shows his search for simplicity while using darker toned colours that emphasize the coldness of the winter season with its greyish sky and grey-green field divided by a partly white and blackish zone as horizon with trees and a mill, as the only visible trace of human activity.

The owner of these paintings was working at the Dutch embassy in Jakarta when he purchased these remarkable masterpieces.

This powerful painting presents a rare opportunity to own museum quality work that documents and conveys the artistic journey and achievements of this inspiring Indonesian master in his search of unity between man and the universe.