Seni Lukis Indonesia Baru

An English language translation of his groundbreaking 1976 essay Seni Lukis Indonesia Baru (New Indonesian Painting). Yuliman’s essay describing the genesis of Indonesian art’s encounters with modernity, and the distinct conditions that influenced its particular manifestation, was originally published as a book by the Jakarta Arts Council48 and has since been reproduced in various Indonesian language publications. It came at the same time that emerging Indonesian artists were exploring new mediums and ideas and establishing a distinctly contemporary, and cosmopolitan, trajectory for their practices. Yuliman was deeply involved in this movement, and this was especially evident in his contributions to the formation of GSRB. In this text, Yuliman traces the history of Indonesian art from Raden Saleh through to the tumultuous 1970s, applying the tools of an art historian to the field by identifying and analysing three distinct periods and various tendencies within these periods. He ends with a critique of the new tendency to ‘anti-lyricism’ that he sees emerging in the artists of his own milieu, who are now the senior practitioners in an established and globally recognised art scene.