Ahmad Sadali

Ahmad Sadali was an iconic figure of the Bandung School and remains a key influence as a pioneer in modern abstract painting in Indonesia. Sadali, along with But Mochtar, Mochtar Apin, and Srihadi Soedarsono, was among the first generation of Indonesian students in the Bandung School. His early work of the 1950s demonstrates the direct influence of his teacher, Dutch painter Ries Mulder (1909–1973), whose own work was influenced by the Cubist work of Jacques Villon (1875–1963). Immediately upon graduation in 1953, Sadali became one of the first Indonesian lecturers of the Academy. Sadali was a key figure in the development of a modern Islamic art and its discourse in Indonesia, for which the principles of abstraction in modern painting were well suited. A devout Muslim and the son of a founder of the Garut chapter of Muhammadiyah, Sadali perceived painting as a spiritual act, as a way of seeking God’s blessing, and as imbued with tasawuf (inner mystical quality). He referred to his paintings as visual meditations, and the act of painting as a form of zikir (repetitive acts leading to a mindfulness of God). Sadali was born into a noble Hadhrami family in Garut, West Java, in 1924. He showed his talent in drawing and painting since he was young, and was taught by a Belgian artist, A.J. Payen, who persuaded the Dutch colonial government to send Sadali to the Netherlands to study art. He arrived in Europe in 1949 and began to study under Cornelius Kruseman and Andreas Schelfhout. He learned the skills of portraiture and landscape painting, and also became a Freemason. He traveled to various European cities and Algiers, and was influenced by the Romantic movement that was popular at the time. He became famous for his paintings of animal fights, especially lions, which he observed from a lion tamer in The Hague. He also painted historical scenes, such as The Arrest of Pangeran Diponegoro, which depicted the capture of the Javanese prince who led a rebellion against the Dutch. He received commissions from various European courts and patrons, and was regarded as a cultured and exotic figure. He dressed in Javanese costume and was known as the "Oriental painter-prince". He spent four years in Dresden, Germany, which he considered the happiest time of his life. He also studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam from 1977 to 1979. Sadali returned to Indonesia in 1957, after living in Europe for eight years. He was welcomed by the Javanese aristocracy and the Dutch colonial officials, who admired his paintings and his European education. He became a society portrait painter, and also painted landscapes and scenes of Javanese life. He built a mansion in Jakarta, which was designed by a fellow artist and interior designer, Imam Buchori Zainuddin. He was appointed as the curator of the art collection of the Dutch colonial administration, and also collected paintings by European artists. He missed the cultural atmosphere of Europe, and returned briefly to Germany from 1976 to 1978, but found that his work was less fashionable than before. He came back to Indonesia, where he died in 1987 from liver disease. He was buried in Bandung, West Java. He is widely recognized as a significant figure among post-war Indonesian abstract artists and a pioneer of the Bandung School of painting.