 Discovering the clearly defined
and colourful perceptions
of Sutjipto Adi. By Arif B. Prasetyo.
 “Welcome to My World” is the
title given by Sutjipto Adi to the painting he finished in 1995. To illustrate this title,
Sutjipto Adi has created a space that is inhabited by images that are precisely built and
cushioned in silence.
Boy, lady, bird, the pattern of body positions, and the spiritual association of the net
of bright crystals - these all constitute a symbolic system that can almost always be
found in Adi’s work. Each image represents purification, beauty, freedom, and
divinity. These are all ideal values that can raise humanity to the highest level of human
dignity. This perfection often takes the form of a spherical ball, a carefully rounded
shape balancing precariously in mid air, a shape that is never absent from the Adi’s
flat canvas. These spheres also serve to symbolize life’s energy, or the substance
that gives life in the universe.
“My work reflects my inquiry into the meaning of perfection in
human life. To me, the ideal humans are those who are perfect both physically and
spiritually,” Adi explains. Through the exploration and development of personal and
universal symbols, Sutjipto Adi is like a researcher who is never exhausted in his
investigations of the essence and meaning of perfection.
If humans are the most creative of God’s own creations, it is only
natural that they will bend to search for perfection. And it is to be expected that the
inquiry into this perfection will lead the enquirer to muse about the uncertain
relationships between humans, nature, and God, as explored by spiritualists and mystics.
Perfection will be reached if humanity, nature, and God are not interpreted as separated
entities, but can be visualized as a single principle.
 “I draw to express my own personal
musings and feelings,” Adi shares. Through a strong smooth technique that focuses on
the use of meticulously careful lines, Adi creates geometric shapes and paints realistic
figures that frequently include the artist himself.
THE ARTISTIC SPIRIT
Adi was born into the family of a merchant who lived in the village of Kalisat in East
Java in 1957. As he grew, Sutjipto Adi started to fill canvases with whatever churned in
his soul. At the beginning, his parents didn’t agree when Adi chose make his living
as a painter, because they worried that it would be difficult to survive on this kind of
profession. But gradually, the artistic spirit that flows freely in Adi’s blood
succeeded in proving that such worry was illogical in his case.
After graduating from SMA, Adi left for Yogyakarta to continue his studies in art, and he
entered the very prestigious Art College STSRI ASRI (now ISI ) in Yogyakarta in 1977. Adi’s artistic careeer began as
a textile designer in Bandung, but he soon became dissatisfied with this job. He chose to
return to his hometown in Jember, and decided to focus on painting. The decision to move
to Bali in the second half of the 1980s gave Adi the opportunity to become a successful
professional painter.
As a painter, Adi realised from the beginning that an exhibition could be a vehicle
for socialization and communication in the public arena. This awareness encouraged him to
actively start exhibiting his work, even while he was still studying in Yogyakarta. In
1980, he participated in the international painting exhibition forum in Hong Kong entitled
“Young Artists in ASEAN Now”.
His first solo exhibition (which is often considered as an initiation
to confirm an artist’s validity) was held in Dewan Kesenian Surabaya and run by the
Surabaya Art Council of East Java in 1985. Adi has since exhibited on his own or
collectively with others around Indonesia and abroad. Some significant large exhibitions
have included the series of “Biennale Seni Lukis” VI (1985), VII (1987), VIII
(1989) and IX (1993/1994) in Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta, The Asian International
Contemporary Art Fair in Singapore in 1993, and “Exhibition: The Mutation and
Painstaking Realism in Indonesia Contemporary Painting” in Tokyo, Japan.
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