the Netherlands and those first years of Independence were marked by major turbulences. That dynamic was illustrated in groups of artists that were created, all with different
political or religious agendas. More important for Indonesian art was the creation and establishment of art
academies in Java and artist organizations connected with these centres. From their inception, three schools have dominated the Indonesian art scene: IKJ
Insitut Kesenian Jakarta
– Art Institute in Jakarta, ITB
Institut Teknologi Bandung
– Technology Institute in Bandung, and ISI
Institut Seni Indonesia
, created as ASRI
Akademi Seni Rupa Indonesia
– Fine Art Academy of Indonesia back in days, now Insitute of Indonesian Art Yogyakarta. In 1970s Indonesian art started also to have strong Post-Modernistic discourse
following world trends. Not long after Indonesian art entered in the world art arena and after 1990s Indonesian art has had its ups and downs but until today continues to surprise
and intrigue art lovers from all over globe. Kusuma-Atmadja et al. 1990 With this short review of art we can see that Indonesian art is connected with its
modern history. In classical times artists were merely craftsmen and somehow moderators between divine forces, rulers and the common people. Beginning in the 19th century
painters and Indonesian intellectuals start to shape the future of the Indonesian nation. Once, Indonesia was independent they continue to work together with politicians in shaping
the national ideology. For thirty years, Indonesia was under one regime that did not allow free artistic thinking, so the influence of art quitted down out at first, but then together with
the people‟s resistance, artists started to become braЯer and to question authorities. Since 1999, Indonesia has again been questioning its position in the wider world, and in this
process of re-positioning and re-shaping the identity artists do play an active role.
B. Theoretical Basis
1. Postcolonial Theory
There is a theoretical field in cultural studies that can be named the „difference
theorв‟ Milner and Broаitt 2002 said it „has been characterised bв an attempt to theorise the nexus between the operations of difference in language and culture and those of socio-
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historical difference, especially in respect of gender and sexuality, nationality, race and ethnicitв.‟ While this concept appears Яague and diЯerse it centres on questions of the
identitв. As Hall 1993 adds „there are also critical points of deep and significant
difference which constitute „аhat we really are‟; or rather since history has intervened
– „аhat we have become‟. In this research, questions concerning the national identity will be examined,
primarily those concerning creating and sustaining ideas of nationalism and theories that are put together under one term
– post-colonial theory. One of the greatest resources for studying nationalism in South-
East Asia is Benedict Anderson‟s „Imagined Communitв‟ 1996. He argues how culture, in the first place language
– primarily printed one via books, press
helped to shape the national identitв аhich he equals аith „imagined communities‟. He giЯes explanation for nation building processes in all parts of the аorld
and he gives tools to demonstrate how diverse this process is. For this research the most important findings are the ones from South-East Asia.
Anderson conducted his most important research in South-East Asia. Indonesia, as it is
understood today, never actually existed. It is a product of the Dutch colonization; the settlers referred to their territory as
the East India. „As its hвbrid-pseudo-Hellenic name suggests, its stretch does not even remotely correspond to any pre-colonial domain; on the
contrarв ... its boundaries haЯe been left behind bв the last Dutch conquests‟. Anderson, 1996 Nevertheless, that was enough for the newly formed Indonesian intelligentsia to
„imagine‟ this communitв as one entitв. He argues that people from north and north- western Sumatra had more connections with the people on the Malay peninsula than those
in Ambon. Yet one of the biggest reasons the Indonesia project succeed where others failed i.e. United Indochina was the fact that the Dutch tolerated the Indonesian language as
„lingua franca‟ of the Archipelago. Around the turn of the century, Indonesias lingua franca will become a powerful tool in the nation-building process.
A national culture is not folklore, nor an abstract populism that believes it can discover the peoples true nature. A national culture is the whole body of efforts
made by a people in the sphere of thought to describe, justify and praise the action through which that people has created itself and keeps itself in existence.
A national culture in underdeveloped countries should therefore take its place perpustakaan.uns.ac.id
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at the very heart of the struggle for freedom which these countries are carrying on Fanon, 1963.
When аe talk about national identities and cultures аe must mention that: “more than three-quarters of the people living today have had their lives shaped by the experience
of colonialism Barke r, 2005”. In those countries аith colonial experience after getting
rid of colonial powers writers and theoreticians start to write and discuss about post- colonialism. Postcolonial theory explores postcolonial discourses and their subject
positions in relation to the themes of race, nation, subjectivity, power, subalterns, hybridity and creolization Barker, 2005. There are numerous approaches and definitions of
Postcolonial theory, for this research one useful is mentioned under. [Postcolonial theorв]…Seeks to speak to the vast and horrific social and
psychological suffering, exploitation, violence and enslavement done to the powerless victims of colonization around the world. It challenges the superiority of
the dominant Western perspective and seeks to re-position and empower the marginalized and subordinated
Other
. It pushes back to resist paternalistic and patriarchal foreign practices that dismiss local thought, culture and practice as
uniformed, barbarian and irrational. It identifies the complicated process of establishing an identity that is both different from, yet influenced by, the colonist
аho has left‟. Parsons and Harding, 2011 It is still questionable where domains of postcolonial theory are. Some argue that
even the American culture can be put into post-colonial frame. Here we would address to the findings and ideas of those theoreticians whose work is relevant to this research.
Edward Said in his book
Orientalism
argues how French and British colonist who in the Middle East started to construct
Orient
or
East
as a contrast to
West
which authors will later call this
Occident
and
Occidentalism
. He argued that this construction was built a binary opposition model in which Western values can be described as: progressive, liberal,
secular, educated, democratic, open, and so on. Eastern ideals would conversely be described as: conservative, closed, religious -
primarilв Islamic, limited minded, etc. „The major component in European culture is precisely ... the idea of European identity as a
superior one in comparison with all the non- European peoples and cultures‟ Said, 2003
Orientalism is also possible inside the West. Maria Todorova is a Bulgarian born historian and philosopher аho liЯes and аorks in the US. TodoroЯa incoprorated Said‟s
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concept of Orientalism in European region of Balkan in her book
Imagining Balkans
2009. She analysed what the term Balkans meant within a cultural frame. She explained the origin of the name, and how from the 19th century and with the falling of the Ottoman
Empire and rise of national states in it, Europe West started to become interested in this region. It shows further how Europe was always between accepting it in its own cultural
and with that economical, political and every other way circle and rejecting it with great passion and discussion over its monstrosity, brutality, and primitivism.
Postcolonial theory grows from literature theory and its first authors were ones of Indian origins, Homi Bhabha is one of the most famous critical theorist and Postcolonial
theory contributor. One of his central ideas is that of
hybridization
, which, taking up from Edward Saids work, describes the emergence of new cultural forms from multiculturalism.
Instead of seeing colonialism as something locked in the past, Bhabha shows how its histories and cultures constantly intrude on the present, demanding that we transform our
understanding of cross-cultural relations. His work transformed the study of colonialism by applying post-structuralist methodologies to colonial texts.
Feminism is cultural theory where Postcolonial theory can also be implemented. Chandra Talpade Mohanty is an Indian postcolonial and transnational feminist theorist. In
her essay
Under the Western Eyes - Feminist Scholarship and Feminist Discourse
1998 she argued that there is still
colonisation
when Western authors write about East. They do аrite about аomen in East to a „siгeable extent‟ and alаaвs using same or similar
prejudices that they exploit and with that process they are reproducing these stereotypes. „Coloniгation almost inЯariablв implies a relation of structural domination, and suppression
– often violent – of the heterogeneitв of the subjects in question‟. Mohantв, 1998 She called this „contemporarв imperialism‟ and she saа explanatory potential and political
effects of this. That is also „hoа ethnocentric uniЯersalism is produced‟. When аe scholars аrite and saв „аomen of Africa‟, Mohantв 1998 argued „аe saв too little and
аe saв too much‟.
Perhaps this quote can be used when we talk about Postcolonial theory – we say too
much and we say too little. Milica Bakic Hayden developed her idea of nesting East and Balkan in Europe 1995 where eastern and south-eastern European countries did not have
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historical experience of being colonies, but experience of being occupied or being part of greater, more powerful Empires gave people from this regions similar historical experience
and search for justice and identity in similar way how ex-colonial nations did. The ideas of Postcolonial theory are very diverse, in this paper we will be researching the one dealing
with identity. Primary with theories concerned with
creating Other,
with notions such are
West and Rest, Orientalism, Nesting Orientalism
and others. Secondly, the theories of
cultural hybridity
аill be used. Indonesian painting is „imported‟ from the West, but it greа to be an integral and dynamic part of Indonesian art. Nevertheless, from the 19th century
until today Indonesian artists are trying to prove that they can be the East and the West at the same time. It may look that in globalized world these notions are outdated; actually they
are still present, just in different shapes and forms.
2. Visual Semiotics
All art is signs and symbols. Representational art is symbol for objects, places, or people being represented. Abstract art can be symbol of an idea or feeling in the artist
viewer. Sign is everything that can be taken as significantly substituting for something else. „All painters аork аithin a „pictorial language‟, i.e. an inherited set of conventions,
elements and rules of picture making.‟ Quigleв, 2009 Semiotics is relatiЯelв neа
academic field in observing and interpreting meaning convey in art. Generally speaking it is new academic field; it was first developed and interpreted in studies of languages.
Notes from lectures of the Swiss author Ferdinand de Saussure are foundations of modern semiotics. Saussure divides a sign into two components
– the signifier the sound, image, or word and the signified, which is the concept the signifier represent, or meaning.
If we look at his ideas from art point of view – we can say that everything that we identify
in work of art is signifier. In first place in painting those signs are present in colours and lines. Shortest definition of semiotics is that is the study of signs.
Signs themselves cannot be understood alone, so we need to interpret them within a sign system. It is a combination of sign relationship
– relationship with one sign to another in paintings this is sometimes cal
led concept and context. As Eco explains „аhat is commonlв called „message‟ is in fact a
text
whose content is a multileveled
discourse
.‟ perpustakaan.uns.ac.id
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„The historв proЯides вou аith a Яisual Яocabularв that both enables and constrains аhat you can and will say with yo
ur painting‟ Quigleв, 2009. It is important here to mention post-modernistic approach to paintings art and culture in general that the meaning is also
conveyed in relationship where painting is uttered, in whose company, by whom and for what purpose, etc.
Charles S. Pierce was an American philosopher who developed similar ideas to those of Saussure. In art studies it is important to mention his three kinds of signs; we
would call them in art studies representational signs: Index – where signifier is not arbitrary, rather it has direct connection to signified.
In paintings examples of this is smoke which represents fire, dark clouds storm and bad weather, or sometimes there are even figure pointing indexing at something
which have obvious indexical value. Icon – where signifier resembles signified. In paintings those are self-portraits,
portraits, cartoons, and caricatures. Symbol – signifier does not look at all as signified. Its value is arbitrary and it is
pure matter of conventions. It needs to be learnt, otherwise it does not have any value. Examples of these in paintings are: national flags, sculls in still-life paintings,
animals like symbols of some human characteristics etc. They can also be verbal as writings in painting, books, quotes, etc. Hirsh, 2011
Todaв there is significant groаth of Яisual communication and „explosion‟ of images on the Internet, so big that theoretician argue are we living in verbal or visual
society. Dillon 1999 asks three questions: How language-like are images? How do images and words work when they are both present? How do scenes of people gazing and posing
convey visual meaning? These questions can be placed as central questions of visual communication and visual semiotics.
Language is „a sвstem of signs that express ideas‟, for Saussure there are tаo components that make language
– langue – the system of language that is internalized by given speech community; and parole
– individual act of speech. Art is understood as primitive language that combined visual signs and linguistic principles. Structural approach
to art is that art is like a sentence, whose meaning is conveyed by its compositional perpustakaan.uns.ac.id
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elements and conventions of art, rather than form and subject matter. In visual art, semiotics interprets messages based on their signs and symbolism. So we can argue that art
is language. There are also some who will argue that images are mute. Natural meaning of represented objects does not exist, before we provide them meaning. There is no syntax that
articulates their part and binds them together. One of the critics of language-painting homology is Dufrenne 1966
11
he gives two objections to this: the first one is a structural one Painting is not system with two
articulations – art „does not аrite its oаn grammar. It inЯents it and betrays it in its
inЯention‟ and the second one is an aesthetical one – painting does not have strength to signify, but to show. Zems 1967
12
agrees that painting is not language, but he says that there are many pictorial languages, represented in every painting style. Marin 1971
13
describes three phases in reading painting – the primary level is where we identify the
signs, the second level is when we put them in a relationship with other visible and invisible absent signs, and then we en
ter the third phase аhere аe open a „dimension of pictorial codes аhich is its cultural space‟. Messaris 1994 argues: „As soon as аe go
beyond spatiotemporal interpretations, the meaning of visual syntax becomes fluid, indeterminate, and more subject to
the Яieаer‟s interpretational predispositions than is the case аith a communicational mode such as Яerbal language‟
Images are often folloаed bв the аords. One proЯerb can saв „A picture is аorth thousands аords‟, but as it is shoаn aboЯe if аe look at one picture and we do not
understand the complex sign relationship – that picture will be mute for us. Therefore most
of the times, images are followed by words – expressed in titles, labels, placards, guides,
„the artist‟s аords‟ and so on. Barthes 1961 „The text constitutes a parasitic message designed to connote the image‟. In modern art artists аere plaвing аith this as аell. Perfect
examples for this are the words of Rene Magritte: My painting is visible images which conceal nothing: they evoke mystery and,
indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question “What does that mean?” It does not mean anвthing, because mвsterв means nothing
either, it is unknoаable.” Rene Magritte in O‟Toole, 2008
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From Nöth, W. 1995. Handbook of Semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press
12
Ibid.
13
Ibid.
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Relationships between text and images are delivered by explication where text is explaining the image and illustration аhere image „summariгes‟ аords. This relationship
is exploited by advertising industries and famous interpretation of this is given by French semiotician Roland B
arthes in his „The Rhetoric of Image‟ from 1964. He analвses advertisement for Panzani pasta.
There are three classes of messages within the image: 1 The linguistic message –
text, 2 The symbolic coded iconic message – connoted image and 3 The literal non-
coded iconic message – denoted image. Text connected with image has two functions – to
be anchorage – to enrich meaning of words with meaning of image; and to be relay – like in
comic strips to convey meaning. Denoted image is hard to grasp, Barthes is saying about photographic „naturalness‟, but he rejects this idea since he denies the possibilitв of the
purelв denoted image. „It is an absence of meaning full of all the meaning‟. Connoted
image is one with rhetoric. In this example it says about product: freshness,
Italianicity
, idea of total culinary service, still life-like-advertisement and so on. A meaning is derived
from a lexicon idiolect – which is body of knowledge within the viewer.
The third question in visual semiotics – sign producing and conveying meaning is a
relationship between the one who is looking and the one who is being looked at. Theory of gaze was developed by French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Jacques Lacan. This complex
theory can be implemented to how we understand art and visual semiotic. Example for this is analyses of female gazes in Renaissance painting in Europe around the XV century
– male were always depicted as dominant with sharp and controlling gaze toward the women
andor viewer, on the other hand females were depicted as subordinate, shy, turning their heads, looking themselves in mirrors, etc. In art theory we recognize four gazes:
1 Gaze of artist: how the artist look at the subject
2 Gaze of viewer: point of view, predetermined by the artist, or self-determined by
the viewer 3
Gaze of the figure depicted in the art out to the viewer 4
Gaze of one depicted figure to another or to an object or area within or outside of the work Hirsh, 2011
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In painting there is also „imperial gaгe‟ and аe can interpret it also in postcolonial discourse
– where mighty European, Western ruler is looking dominantly to his subordinate one. Theory of gaze is present topic in film studies, or in interpreting the
advertisements both still – photographed one and action – video one but as one form of
visual communication it was important to be mentioned here as well. Plato said “Painting is far from truth, and therefore, apparentlв, painting has the
effect of reaching onlв little of eЯerвthing, and that onlв in a shadoа image”. We can u
nderstand this statement in the shadoа of semiotics as „muteness‟ of image that аe mentioned aboЯe. Plato‟s student, Aristotle said „There can be no аords аithout images‟.
Every time when we articulate a word we also have visual representation of it. Connection between verbal and visual language is undeniable. Therefore, in this study, visual semiotics
approach, together with postcolonial theory will be implemented in understanding and interpreting Indonesian paintings where Pangeran Diponegoro is the main motif.
C. Relevant Researches
