RIGHT
Accompanying a
drawing of his wife,
Rose, practising,
Sudjojono writes:
Where does it lead to?
To perfection in beauty
And what is beauty?
That is something
personal
Ink and watercolour on paper
Approx. 26.7 x 37 cm
Gift of Cynthia and John Koh
Collection of
National Gallery Singapore
© S. Sudjojono CenterVisitors may view S. Sudjojono’s
Draw&Paintsketchbook at the digital
touchscreen kiosk located at the
UOB Southeast Asia Gallery 6 at
the National Gallery Singapore.
TheNationalGallerySingaporeiscurrently
conducting an extensive digitisation project
acrossSoutheastAsiatopreserverare
resources on Southeast Asian art history.
CompilingtheworksofSudjojonoisoneof
itsmajorprojects,withthegalleryworking
closelywiththeS.SudjojonoCenterand
theartist’sfamilytodigitiseallhisletters
andotherworksintheircollection.“We’re
doingthisbecauseit’simportanttodigitise
all these materials before they’re destroyed
because they’re [mostly] paper based
materials,”sayscuratorYuJin.VIEW S. SUDJOJONO’S
SKETCHBOOK AT THE
NATIONAL GALLERY
SINGAPOREConsidered one of Indonesia’s greatest contemporary artists, S. Sudjojono’s
artwork, including the drawingsinDraw & Paintt, can now be viewed digitally
AMater’sSketchbook
ANA RTIST’SDIARY
S. Sudjojono(1 91 3–1986) was one of the most
prominent igures of modern Indonesian art.
Born in Kisaran, Sumatra, the Indonesian
artist produced a broad spectrum of art pieces,
ranging from paintings, sketches and still life
to reliefs and ceramic works. Also a passionate
art critic, Sudjojono – also known as Pak Djon
- also wrote extensively about art, and one
of his views was that Indonesian art should
relect the country’s landscapes and people.
In 1969, Sudjojono produced aDraw &
Paintsketchbook illed with 18 drawings of
everyday scenes that the artist encountered in
Jakarta and its surrounds. he drawings and
accompanying handwriten notes revealed his
thoughts and observations amid signiicant
changes in both his private and social life,
which took place during the turbulent political
upheavals in Indonesia in the mid-1960s. he
year 1969 marked the artist’s 10th wedding
anniversary with his second wife, Indo-
European mezzo-soprano Rosalina (“Rose”)
Pandanwangi, and his subsequent withdrawal
from political activity.
“Actually, it’s not the kind of sketchbook
he usually made to prepare for his painting,”
explained the Gallery’s senior curator Seng Yu
Jin. “hese are just his drawings. Most are like
journals that he kept of his life.”
Consisting of 18 drawings, theDraw & Paint
sketchbook was displayed in its entirety for the
irst time at the National Gallery Singapore
as part of the “(Re)collect: he Making of
our Art Collection” exhibition, which ended
on 19 August 2018. According to exhibition
curator Lisa Horikawa, “his sketchbook has
an interesting acquisition story. Sudjojono
had gited it to a Japanese friend of his in
Jakarta and this Japanese friend brought the
sketchbook back to Japan and people had
forgoten about its existence until it resurfaced
in an auction.” It was Singaporean John Koh
who acquired the book at the auction, and
who later donated it to the National Gallery
Singapore. agature | asian artists