Gono is often found enjoying the therapeutic effects of water
Gono was born in 1956, the youngest child of famous Indonesian Painter Sudarso. He had three sisters and all four of his brothers were painters. His father was the favorite painter of President Soekarno, quite possibly because of his mastery of the female figure. Sudarso was also the founder of “Pelukis Rakyat” and ASRI, Yogya’s art academy. After the coup in 1965 that ousted Soekarno, and the momentous killing spree that followed, “Pelukis Rakyat” disbanded but maintained legendary status in Indonesian Art History. Because of all these circumstances, Gono was born right into the center of Indonesian arts studying and collection center. Check out the Sudarso Gallery
Growing up, Gono was obviously exposed to the upper crust of society. The new class of rich elite that collected his father and more specifically, visits to the Presidential Palace to meet with the President himself. On the other hand he grew up seeing the effects of extreme poverty and the criminal elements of people trying to survive in the underbelly of Yogya. He recalls a neighbor that ate frogs and lizards caught along the banks of the then clean and fecund river banks of Yogya.
There are so many elements to the creation of Gono; his extensive training in all aspects of traditional painting, running in all classes and types of social circles. Also, while Gono grew up Indonesia was ruled by a Military Dictatorship where fear was a major tool of control. People ‘disappeared’ and died regularly in order for the government to maintain power and control over the Indonesian people with gorilla style terror tactics and horriable oppression.
As Gono matured and developed his own style, his paintings began to explode with social political overtones. Just look through
his 90′s or
early 2000′s galleries. He was painting for revolution!
There is no way to completely capture Gono in a brief biography. He is an enigma! Gono has friends of all walks of life, he is often found alone in nature or talking with fisherman by the river. He enjoys discussing the fields with a farmer and is constantly plugging himself deep into the land and people of Indonesia. When tragedy struck in the 6.3 earthquake that devastated Yogya in June 2006, he donated time and food to assist. Gono, his wife Tuti, and children Gabi and Gintani put together an arts and crafts, and gift bag day for the children of Yogya left homeless. This was a larger priority than their own damaged home. The heart and genius of Gono is immense. Thus, I will have to leave further details to later posts.
Simular art in: Biographies,Gono,Original Fine Art
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed