Umi Dachlan

Umi Dachlan was a prominent Indonesian painter and an art lecturer who graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in 1968 as the third female graduate, where she also became the first female lecturer. Her work has been described as abstract expressionism with a figurative lyricism, reflecting her Islamic faith and her spiritual relationship with nature and music. She was influenced by her mentor Ahmad Sadali, a central figure in the advancement of modern Islamic art in Indonesia. She used warm natural colors and mixed-media elements to create highly textured surfaces that resemble stone and baked earth. She also added coins, gold seams, and geometric patterns to her paintings, symbolizing the connection between the divine and the immediate. She exhibited her works in various solo and group exhibitions in Indonesia and abroad, such as the Jakarta Biennale, the ASEAN Art Exhibition, and the Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh. She also studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, from 1977 to 1979. She was a nurturing, firm, and genuine person who loved jazz and nature. She lived in her dream house in Bandung, designed by her fellow artist and interior designer Imam Buchori Zainuddin. She died at the age of 66 on 1 January 2009 in her house in Bandung and was buried in the Jabangbayi Public Cemetery in Kesambi, Cirebon. She is widely recognized as a significant figure among post-war Indonesian abstract artists and a pioneer of the Bandung School of painting.