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A Rememberance - Abdul Aziz
by Mary Northmore
Born in Purwokerto in 1928, artist Abdul Aziz took his last breath at Sanglah Regional Hospital on Tuesday (22/1) at 10 am local time, after undergoing treatment for just over one week. The deceased leaves his wife, Mary Northmore, founder of Seniwati Gallery of Art by Women in Ubud. The remains of the deceased were prepared for funeral at the home of artist W Harja in Banjar Teges, Peliatan, Ubud.
A Patriot
In 1958 Abdul Aziz was awarded 3 Medals of Honour including the Guerrilla Star, War of Independence I medal and the War of Independence II medal, for services to the nation during the fight for Independence from the Dutch between 1945 and 1949. For this reason, his funeral at the Gianyar Cemetery, Bali, on Tuesday afternoon at 5 pm, also included a Military Guard of Honour and a Volley was fired over the grave.
Childhood Talents
As a child, Abdul Aziz began to draw when he saw a horse his older brother had drawn. On his brother's refusal to do one for him, Abdul Aziz decided he could do it himself, going on to add a cowboy and other pleasing elements. His musical talents also emerged early. His brother owned a violin which he was forbidden to touch. So he had to wait until his brother left the house, and 'borrow' the violin. Once it broke and he had to quickly learn to repair it! And at the age of 8 or so, he was invited to sing at the local Indonesian Radio Station. He loved Keroncong and later learned to play all the musical instruments available.
From Social/Politic to Arts
Initially, in fact, Abdul Aziz did not study to become an artist. In 1951, he studied Social/Politics at Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta. However, due to the call of his heart to the arts, he went on to study at the Indonesian Fine Arts institute in Yogyakarta. In 1959, he received a Scholarship from the Government of Indonesia to continue his studies at the Academia Di Belle Arti in Rome, Italy, where he spent five years and was awarded the Diploma in Painting in October 1962 and the Diploma in Decoration, in October 1964. He then served as a cultural attache to the Indonesian Embassy in Rome from October 1964 to September 1965. On his return to Bali in 1965 he taught Materials Science, Basics of Technical Drawing, and Illustration and Graphics, as an unsalaried 'coach' in the Fine Arts department of Udayana University, Bali. He resigned this job in 1980 to focus his attention on his art, developing the unique 'trompe l'oeil' style which became his trademark.
Marriage
In 1988 Abdul Aziz married Mary Northmore, then Director of the British Institute in Bandung, and they set up home in Mas, Ubud, in 1989. Abdul Aziz was in complete support of his wife when she decided that women artists needed a gallery of their own, which led to the foundation of Seniwati Gallery of Art by Women, in his previous studio in central Ubud.
Then he decided it was time to fulfill another life-long ambition. He wanted to show the world that an Indonesian could make a world-class violin. Starting quite on his own, with no books or information other than some old violins, he had made his first, very beautiful violin from sandalwood in 1985. He went on to study in Cremona, Italy, and Cambridge, England and finally announced himself satisfied with his last two violins in 2000, since which time he enjoyed playing music in a more relaxed fashion. In 1993 Abdul Aziz fulfilled his Moslem 'Haj" pilgrimage commitment
Obsessed by Violins
Other than as an painter, Abdul Aziz was indeed as a multi-talented artist - painting, making violins, and also sculpture. Very few of his sculptures exist, the most well-known being the Puputan memorial in central Denpasar, on which he worked as a consultant.
Two of his sculptures, one of sandstone and one of "sawo kecik" wood are placed alongside his paintings in the Neka museum. In this museum there is one of the artist's most famous works, "Mutual Attraction" (1974-75) - which consists of two separate paintings, one of a youth, one of a young girl, which are placed next to each other, becoming one work. The paintings of Abdul Aziz were included in the "Art of Bali" exhibition at the East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, and for many years he participated in the annual Bali Festival of Arts exhibition of paintings, along with certain other group shows.
-- by Mary Northmore
See also: Bali Echo, December 1994, interview with Barbara Anello
Abdul Aziz
by Astri Wright
Nationalist and revolution era painter Abdul Aziz passed away on January 22nd, at 10.30 am. He was buried the same afternoon in accordance with Muslim custom. Being a Hero of the Republic for his services in the Revolutionary Student Army, 1949, Abdul Aziz was put to rest with additional Military Ceremonies, with a Guard of Honour and a volley of shots fired over his grave. He left behind his wife, Mary Northmore, Director of the Seniwati gallery for Women's Art in Bali, who said in a personal statement that he did not suffer for long and was calm at the end. She thanks everyone for their prayers and good wishes.
Abdul Aziz, originally from East Java but a resident of Bali for the last part of his life, was widely known and highly sought for his realistic paintings of village scenes and scenes from the Ramayana or other popular mythology, painted in high-contrast day-light. Many of his best known paintings used a theatrical illusionistic device that was uniquely his in Indonesian painting: wooden frames or doorways which he painted so realistically that they seemed like real ones were incorporated into the composition, but with the subjects's heads or limbs overlapping these framing devices, which main them appear to be leaning out of the canvas, towards the viewer. In this highly skilled way, Aziz brought his painted subjects and his viewers together in the same semi-imaginary, semi-real space.
During the last years of his life he mostly abandoned painting for the pursuit of the art of building violins and recording music in his home studio. While collectors sought his work passionately, Aziz did not give in to the star-pressures of the art world and its indelible hierarchy-drive and marketing instincts, even though (or perhaps because) he was considered a senior master in Indonesian painting and would have been swept into the numerous social and artistic engagements such positions entail.
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