| He likes to think seriously
about every new development in his work: is it appropriate
and is it the correct time to move forward another step? He
does not want to shoot up into the sky like a rocket and then
go into freefall on the way down. He continues to work seriously,
unaffected by any tumult occurring in the art market. His
contemplations become deeper and deeper as he continues to
explore and experiment. As a result, his work is more weighty,
interesting and admirable. It is not the virtuosity of his
technique, explosive emotions, pseudo eccentricity, discovery
of a new medium or subject matter exceeding the limits of
our imagination which make Edi Sunaryo's work interesting.
His work improves because of the simplicity of his personality,
his avoidance of doing all sorts of unnecessary things, his
slow but steady achievements, conservative attitudes, maturity
of thought, subtle emotion and many layers of experience.
Three years have passed since Edi Sunaryo moved
away from his "primitive image" abstract style and
commenced a new period in his work based on the age-old principle
of "full is empty and empty is full". In his new
style he also depicts actual objects in his paintings. In
the past three years he has made significant progress. If
in the past I considered Edi Sunaryo to be a "slow starter"
with a diesel engine, it is clear that I was mistaken in my
judgement. Now, unless we often visit his studio to see his
work, we could be very surprised by all the new developments
that are happening. He is now completely at ease with using
the bright colours that he avoided in the past. Used in combination
with his usual dark, muffled colours, his new works have a
different nuance if compared to his previous works. He is
now confident enough to include human figures and animals,
which he had never before included in his earlier paintings.
Not content to focus only on mere mortals, he even includes
the figure of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as can be seen
in the painting entitled The Descent from the Cross in my
own collection. Freed from the chains which hampered him in
the past, his subject matter has been greatly enriched. Edi
now wanders freely through the world of his imagination.
Edi Sunaryo's works now include the imaginative
use of symbols, as can be seen in the painting entitled My
Love in which he portrays a cat and a woman's dress. The beloved
woman is not actually seen in the painting but she is clearly
felt and represented by her dress.
Edi has long been an expert in the graphic arts
and sometimes he includes printmaking techniques in his oil
paintings, and this makes his paintings even more interesting.
He also includes collage techniques. There is no longer the
monotonous feeling of the works he created during his "primitive
image" period.
Due to Edi's compositional skills and
his dexterity in creating a block of colour which covers a
large field, it will not be surprising if Edi Sunaryo creates
abstract works consisting solely of blocks of primary colours
in the future. I think that these types of paintings would
be very interesting. Hopefully my prediction will come true.
We await further surprises from Edi Sunaryo.
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