Indonesian painter Srihadi Soedarsono passes away at 90

Indonesian art maestro and painter Srihadi Soedarsono passed away on Saturday (26 February) in Bandung, West Java. He was 90. 

Srihadi Soedarsono was born on 4 February 1931. At the age of 15, he started to participate in and hold joint and solo painting exhibitions both in Indonesia and abroad. As a teenager, he joined IPI (Indonesian Student Association) defence department and a military unit known as Tentara Pelajar (student soldiers) serving as art journalist. 

There, Srihadi was actively involved in making posters and graffiti and writing slogans on big city walls and train carriages aimed to ignite the fighting spirit. As a student soldier, he was also involved in physical fights. 

From 1953 until 1958, he went to the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), taking fine arts as his major. He is also known as the one who designed the iconic logo of ITB. In 1960-1962, he continued his study at Ohio State University, in which he obtained his Master of Arts degree. After that, he became chairman of the Department of Fine Arts at ITB. Years later, in 1980, he pursued art education with a Fulbright USA scholarship. 
In 1992, he was appointed as professor of fine arts at ITB. Since then, he became a lecturer in the field, teaching both at ITB and the Jakarta Institute of Arts (IKJ). 

According to Kompas, Srihadi is known as an artist who is very good at colour processing, hence he is dubbed as an unrivalled colourist. Art critic Jean Couteau calls him a “Maestro Penyambung Lidah Budaya Jawa” for his paintings, which often present the spirituality and mysticism of the Bedhaya Ketawang dance. 

For non-oil painters, Srihadi is known as the one who combines water colouring and drawing. Looking at Srihadi’s series of works that uses Borobudur as the theme and reference, culture expert H Boediardjo calls Srihadi a pioneer of meditative and magical painting. Srihadi's Borobudur painting was also used by UNESCO as a poster illustration for the Borobudur restoration which took place from 1973 to 1983.

“Air Mancar” is also known as one of his notable paintings. Through this painting, he criticises the local government of Jakarta as he notices that the city at the time was too disorganised due to the cluttered billboards promoting Japanese brands. Ali Sadikin who was serving as the governor at that time was provoked by his paintings, but then apologised and decided to issue regulations regarding billboard ads. 

With that being said, Srihadi is known not only as a great painter, but also as a warrior, great teacher and war fighter. He is survived by his wife Siti Farida Nawawi, his two daughters Tara Farina and Rati Farini and his only Tri Krisnamurti Syailendra.