Soekarno Collects Hundreds of Basoeki Abdullah`s Paintings
Translator
Editor
Kamis, 1 Januari 1970 07:00 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-Paintings by maestro Basoeki Abdullah were the paintings collected the most by Indonesian first President Soekarno.
“There are about 200 paintings of Basoeki Abdullah in the Presidential Palace and most of them were owned by Soekarno,” said Exhibition Curator of 'Goresan Juang Kemerdekaan' Mikke Susanto at the National Gallery Jakarta on Monday, August 2, 2016.
Basoeki Abdullah is renowned for his female portrait, panorama, and flower paintings, but Mikke sees that Basoeki also has other themes in his creation like struggles theme, which were not sold at random.
“Basoeki is famous for painting women, but if we look inside the palace, he also did many patriot portraits,” said Mikke.
One of Basoeki Abdullah’s paintings displayed at the event organized throughout this August is 'Pangeran Diponegoro Memimpin Perang' (Prince Diponegoro Leads the War). He did the painting when he was in Netherlands, coinciding with the Round Table Conference in The Hague.
Basoeki was quite a spiritual person, including in creating his work. He said Diponegoro’s face in the painting was painted according to the instructions of the ‘Ruler of Southern Sea of Java,’ Nyai Roro Kidul.
The painting was given to President Soekarno between 1950-1955.
ANTARA