Frits Liefkes (1930-2010) lived with Indonesian art. His house in The Hague was full of it. Bought almost entirely at auctions and from art dealers in the Netherlands during a period of four decades, on his death he bequeathed his collection to Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde in Leiden. This book presents some of his most beautiful and interesting objects. Reflecting his special interests, golden jewellery and wonderful textiles are particularly well represented in a collection that portrays the skilled craftsmanship of Indonesian artisans.

Living Art: Indonesian Artists Engage Politics, Society and History is inspired by the conviction of so many of Indonesia’s Independence-era artists that there is continuing interaction between art and everyday life. In the 1970s, Sanento Yuliman, Indonesia’s foremost art historian of the late twentieth century, further developed that concept, stating: ‘New Indonesian Art cannot wholly be understood without locating it in the context of the larger framework of Indonesian society and culture’ and the ‘whole force of history’. The essays in this book accept Yuliman’s challenge to analyse the intellectual, sociopolitical and historical landscape that Indonesia’s artists inhabited from the 1930s into the first decades of the new millennium, including their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The inclusion of one of Yuliman’s most influential essays, translated into English for the first time, offers those outside Indonesia an insight into a formative period in the generation of new art knowledge in Indonesia. The volume also features essays by T. K. Sabapathy, Jim Supangkat, Alia Swastika, Wulan Dirgantoro and FX Harsono, as well as the three editors (Elly Kent, Virginia Hooker and Caroline Turner). The book’s contributors present recent research on issues rarely addressed in English-language texts on Indonesian art, including the inspirations and achievements of women artists despite social and political barriers; Islam- inspired art; artistic ideologies; the intergenerational effects of trauma; and the impacts of geopolitical change and global art worlds that emerged in the 1990s. The Epilogue introduces speculations from contemporary practitioners on what the future might hold for artists in Indonesia. Extensively illustrated, Living Art contributes to the acknowledgement and analysis of the diversity of Indonesia’s contemporary art and offers new insights into Indonesian art history, as well as the contemporary art histories of Southeast Asia and Asia more generally.

An overview of the traditional and modern crafts of Indonesia--a vitally important facet of Indonesian life

Indonesian art entered the global contemporary art world of independent curators, art fairs, and biennales in the 1990s. By the mid-2000s, Indonesian works were well-established on the Asian secondary art market, achieving record-breaking prices at auction houses in Singapore and Hong Kong. This comprehensive overview introduces Indonesian contemporary art in a fresh and stimulating manner, demonstrating how contemporary art breaks from colonial and post-colonial power structures, and grapples with issues of identity and nation-building in Indonesia. Across different media, in performance and installation, it amalgamates ethnic, cultural, and religious references in its visuals, and confidently brings together the traditional (batik, woodcut, dance, Javanese shadow puppet theater) with the contemporary (comics and manga, graffiti, advertising, pop culture). Spielmann's Contemporary Indonesian Art surveys the key artists, curators, institutions, and collectors in the local art scene and looks at the significance of Indonesian art in the Asian context. Through this book, originally published in German, Spielmann stakes a claim for the global relevance of Indonesian art.

Indonesia is one of the coutnries where exciting art is still waiting to be discovered. Over the past ten years, a growing number of group exhibitions and survey shows have presented Indonesian art. What has been sorely lacking is a book about the country's best-known artists. "Sip!--Indonesian Art Today" introduces readers to 16 established and young artists, presenting each of them with recent works. Farah Wardani, director of the Indonesian Visual Art Archive, Yogyakarta, has compiled brief texts shedding light on the artist's conceptions. Biographical information, exhibition histories, bibliographies, and portraits of the artists complement the illustrations. The curator Enin Supriyanto, a leading expert on the Indonesian art scene, has contributed an essay examinging the most recent developments in Indonesian art, tying them back to the art history of the past forty years and mapping them to the transformations in Indonesian society and politics during the same period. A timeline extending from the 1970s to the present additionally visualizes the most important moments in art, in Indonesia and abroad, making the book an indispensable compendium for collectors and curators, students of art and everyone who is interested.

Frits Liefkes (1930-2010) lived with Indonesian art. His house in The Hague was full of it. Bought almost entirely at auctions and from art dealers in the Netherlands during a period of four decades, on his death he bequeathed his collection to Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde in Leiden. This book, which accompanies an exhibition, presents some of his most beautiful and interesting objects. Reflecting his special interests, golden jewellery and wonderful textiles are particularly well represented in a collection that portrays the skilled craftsmanship of Indonesian artisans. Exhibition: Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde / National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, the Netherlands (7.5.-21.7.2013). 0.

Living Art: Indonesian Artists Engage Politics, Society and History is inspired by the conviction of so many of Indonesia's Independence-era artists that there is continuing interaction between art and everyday life. In the 1970s, Sanento Yuliman, Indonesia's foremost art historian of the late twentieth century, further developed that concept, stating: 'New Indonesian Art cannot wholly be understood without locating it in the context of the larger framework of Indonesian society and culture' and the 'whole force of history'. The essays in this book accept Yuliman's challenge to analyse the intellectual, sociopolitical and historical landscape that Indonesia's artists inhabited from the 1930s into the first decades of the new millennium, including their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The inclusion of one of Yuliman's most influential essays, translated into English for the first time, offers those outside Indonesia an insight into a formative period in the generation of new art knowledge in Indonesia. The volume also features essays by T. K. Sabapathy, Jim Supangkat, Alia Swastika, Wulan Dirgantoro and FX Harsono, as well as the three editors (Elly Kent, Virginia Hooker and Caroline Turner). The book's contributors present recent research on issues rarely addressed in English-language texts on Indonesian art, including the inspirations and achievements of women artists despite social and political barriers; Islam- inspired art; artistic ideologies; the intergenerational effects of trauma; and the impacts of geopolitical change and global art worlds that emerged in the 1990s. The Epilogue introduces speculations from contemporary practitioners on what the future might hold for artists in Indonesia. Extensively illustrated, Living Art contributes to the acknowledgement and analysis of the diversity of Indonesia's contemporary art and offers new insights into Indonesian art history, as well as the contemporary art histories of Southeast Asia and Asia more generally.

This book covers the development of modern and contemporary art in Indonesia, from the colonial period in the 1930s to the present time of globalization. Each chapter is based on important historical moments that changed the course of the art world. Special attention is paid to individual artists who invented new concepts, styles, and techniques. The Indonesian art world is divided over several geographic centers that are far away from each other (Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Bali). For an outsider, it is not that easy to discover the places where modern and contemporary art can be found, but this book gives us insight into those worlds.