Garis Art

Pupuk Daru Purnomo is one of the artists who are very close to me, and whom I have known for years. I have his paintings from when he was still a student until today. Since he was a student, Pupuk has shown his forte in painting faces. The faces he painted at the time are generally those of mothers. Perhaps it was because he was very close to his mother, while with his father he was rather distant. During his journey as a painter, Pupuk never abandoned painting faces, although he would then become very successful with his paintings of urban landscapes and old buildings.

I once invited him and his best friend Nasirun to a journey all across the United States of America, the Netherlands, and to Paris as well, visiting the museums there. The journey proved very beneficial to him. Along the journey, he never stopped making sketches of everything that caught his interest. He took a lot of pictures, too. From this journey, he managed to create good quality paintings, better than the previous ones, about city landscapes with historical and old buildings and their captivating interiors. The paintings were displayed in a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Indonesia at the end of 2005.

Pupuk learned a lot from the journey as he opened himself and felt that he needed to learn a lot. His first words upon seeing the works in those museums abroad were: “We’re nothing. We feel puny.” He likes to ask me for my opinions about his works, and responds well to my criticism. One of his strong characteristics is his ability to say NO. No exhibition, no auction, no biennale, no other event when he is preparing a solo exhibition. He always says that he requires a certain mood to paint, and he cannot force this to happen. Therefore, during the market boom, no auction house, gallery, or collector came to hunt and bother him, because they knew it would amount to nothing. Pupuk does not lose his head after all the success he has achieved.

One day, when he had been very successful with his city landscapes, I suggested to him to start painting faces of women around us, the results of which would be displayed in my new museum that I was building at the time. He was very interested in the suggestion, as he had started to become bored with painting buildings. Unfortunately, the idea never materialized. He, however, took on the idea and brought it further to create self- portraits—but not the usual self-portraits. These self-portraits bear no resemblance to Pupuk D.P.. Apparently, what he painted was not his face; he only used the faces as metaphors to express his emotions in a variety of situations that he had encountered in his life. Pupuk, with his strong brush strokes, could create faces with strong expressions that bear no resemblance to his own face.

This has not satisfied him. He continued his exploration, using another technique. The results are amazing: perfect realistic faces that he then actually had the heart to “destroy” by using a certain liquid, creating some unique layer that covered the initial face. There are thus mysterious faces behind the layer. The works that he made using this new technique are entirely African faces, and he did mean to portray the situation in Africa, full of misery as it is. Therefore, he also used the faces as symbols, like the face of Hitler that symbolized the destruction caused by wars. The paintings with this realistic technique appear very different from his expressive works, although both contain similar meanings. This is a surprise in this exhibition.

Furthermore, Pupuk started to become interested in creating three-dimensional works. The sculptures he made using the medium of bronze also present the faces that he employed as his chosen language of expression. As this is the fist time for the artist to create three-dimensional works, this constitutes the second surprise in this exhibition. Hopefully, Pupuk will create other surprises in the future.

Pupuk’s other forte, which we cannot show here due to the lack of space, can be seen in his works on paper, in the forms of drawings and watercolor and pastel works, which he usually makes in preparation for his oil paintings. He has exhibited those works in Singapore in his solo exhibition at Gajah Gallery. He has also had a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Indonesia in Jakarta for the paintings with city landscapes and old buildings and the building interiors, which he documented during his journey with me and his former class mate, Nasirun, to the United States of America, the Netherlands, and to Paris. The exhibition was highly successful. I think, however, the exhibition with the title “DOXA Faces as Metaphor” is his best exhibition to date, because face painting has indeed been Pupuk Daru Purnomo’s strongest suit.

-Dr. Oei Hong Djien-