As one of the most significant living modern Indonesian painters, Srihadi Soedarsono is widely recognised for his ephemeral visual language and abstract re-imaginations of the landscapes of his country. Executed in 1974, Abstract Landscape is, at its heart, an ode to the sheer natural beauty of Indonesia. This early work envelops viewers in swathes of colors true to the artist’s surrounding environs, providing an expansive vista of lush fields, rolling hills and a distant horizon. Srihadi’s artistic praxis bespeaks a gift for synthesising strands of abstract expressionism in tandem with Javanese philosophies, which ultimately enables viewers to experience the multidimensional sublimity of the horizon seascape of this present lot.

Having studied at the esteemed Bandung Institute of Technology and the Ohio State University, Srihadi stood at the forefront of modern Indonesian art in the 1950s, and sought to understand the notions of “informal”, “brut”, and “expressionistic” styles in the 1960s through inventive depictions of Indonesia’s natural terrains. As encouraged by the acclaimed Dutch painter Arie Smit, Srihadi embarked on a monumental trip to Bali in 1953, which kindled within him a passion for capturing the allures of the island’s beach scenes, seascapes and horizons through expressive forms and compositions. Illustrations of the purity of the natural world remain as Srihadi’s largest mode of expression, as he lends from the unification of the elements of land, water and sky to bring a sense of spiritual harmony to his oeuvre. Srihadi’s abstracted landscapes, in particular, pay homage to the philosophic basis of rasa, variously translated as “affect” and “intuition”, as an unbound, non-formalist embodiment of perception, consciousness and emotion, which is manifested through the spiritual pursuit of an object’s essence.

Srihadi arranges various color panes over one another, generating a complex interplay of structure and contrast with layers of cerulean, sienna and forest green. Unlike his American peers, such as Franz Kline and Jackson Pollock, Srihadi’s methods of abstraction are detailed and painstaking experimentation with form and color, all within the scope of Javanese notions of balance. His strikingly minimal compositions highlight his commitment to the sensational and visual power of contrast, as undulating lines of various widths and oscillations traverse along the colour fields, giving spontaneity, energy and fluidity to the canvas. As these textural lines mark the edges of each color field, seperating the different elements of nature, Srihadi transforms the disorderly into the orderly, as these uninhibited disruptions to the horizontal planes of colour bring a coherent modulation of form to the composition. We see how Srihadi employs a seemingly unrestrained interplay of structure and impasto that appears far from monotonous, as his eloquent brushwork weaves in and out of the colour planes, layering brief streaks of vibrant green, yellow, white and red onto the canvas with a staccato rhythm, bringing visual stimulation to different parts of the work. Srihadi’s creative re-interpretation of the abstract expressionist techniques he encountered in America is illuminated in this present lot, as the physical intricacies of the elements are reduced and simplified to abstracted shapes and contours. With thick swathes of impasto that elongate the horizontally orientated panel, Srahidi bridges a confluence of the actual and abstract, subsequently imparting a sleek flow of endless continuity to each segment. Thus, the landscape is brought to life seamlessly through Srihadi’s emphasis on rasa, balance and hues, as he expresses his love and admiration for the purity of the natural world.