Umi Dachlan (Cirebon, W. Java, 1942 - Bandung, W. Java, 2009) Inca Dance

There is no denying that Umi Dachlan is the heir to the abstraction tradition of the "Bandung School" pioneered by Achmad Sadali, her maestro at the Bandung Institute of Technology. This is clearly seen in her works, which appear as an attempt to achieve Sadali's aesthetic perfection. =Umi and Sadali's closeness, both in terms of approach and aesthetic image, cannot be denied. Even the titles she uses, “Noktah-noktah Emas Pada Bidang” and “Bidang Merah Maroon Dengan Accent Garis Emas” and her signature is reminiscent of Sadali’s. In her images, like Sadali, Umi uses spontaneous color application with multiple layers of paint. The process of its application reflects an awareness of imperfection and efforts to achieve that perfection through an aesthetic approach. Perhaps, like Sadali, for Umi this is also a kind of spiritual effort, to achieve perfection in her work. According to her colleague, the painter A.D. Pirous, Umi has a tendency to express an abstract-contemplative visual language in painting. “She can be very engrossed and carried into the fields of color, into shapes and lines that can take us to a visible world that is familiar with a sense of contemplation, a sense of solemnity, whether cheerful, sad or contemplative. She likes to reveal shapes, which wants to drag us into other experiences that are hidden beneath the surface,” he wrote in an exhibition catalog. Pirous's review reminds us of Umi's other works, which indeed brings viewers to a different experience that goes beyond the image itself.
Medium: acrylics on canvas
Size: 105 x 95 cm
Signature: "signed (lower left):”Umi” on verso title, inscribed signed and dated: “Inca Dance 105 x 95 cm, 1991, Umi d ‘91 Umi Dachlan”"