Putut Wahyu Widodo (deceased 2021) was an artist living and working in Semarang, Indonesia. His works reflect his background as a journalist and editor of one of the leading newspaper in Java. He found his inspiration in news and media events. The blurry images in his paintings are reminiscences of frozen captures of the video or film frames.
As a painter-cum-visual editor, Putut was especially aware and sensitive towards the power of images. In commercial photography and art, and in particular advertising, the meaning must be clear and distinct and most importantly must provoke a desire to consume. Similarly, Art can communicate feelings and emotions, or thoughts and ideas. These portraits exemplify a modern realism where graphic abstraction, semi-Cubist elements, and figuration meet to create images which are ‘less’ portraits of people and ‘more’ about the creation of a mood, an emotional state, and even alienation. The portraits are more than a mere visual artistic rendition of human gestures and poses. Putut’s task is to reveal what resides underneath the surface appearance of observed empirical reality. The images are mainly free of perspective and have an intensity of line, a flatness of form, minimal use of colour, and most importantly, a harmony of all over design. An aesthetic concern that dominates his entire body of work. Even the picture frame seems to imprison the nude and the elements depicted, enhancing feelings ranging from the serene to uneasiness. Some of the images are physiologically unnerving.
Putut worked with all kinds of digital imaging software. By exploring, exploiting, and experimenting with digitally created images, he is showing us how image making technology can help us to radically change our way of looking, and, thus, enhance our understanding of the world. His artworks reflect an intensive interrogation into our contemporary culture which is increasingly being governed by commercially produced images. Putut did not want to simply copy the work of a machine, but, he wanted to illustrate the problems of converting a digitally produced image into an ‘artwork’. Consequently, in the artworks created for his exhibition, ‘Serene Bodies’, Putut attempted to marry the figurative or narrative contents of photography, with the abstract qualities of painting.
As the works ‘Daylight Fading’, ‘Waiting So Long’ and ‘No In Between’ demonstrate, Putut attempts to depict the ‘alienation’ and ‘self control’ of the modern human being in a contemporary society. Putut thought that “the human body is a space for testing our behaviour and recognizing ourselves, even our own sense of belonging to our own body”. Within these works, Putut apparently wished to erase all the narrative associations which usually can emerge from a photographic image, and, instead, combine this ‘narration’ into a simplified unity of body language, as the subject matter. Putut was exploring a unified image of the human body to stimulate the viewers own sensations and our own unexpected perceptions. However, as the works ‘Groan’ and ‘Waiting Angel’ further demonstrate, Putut was also interested in capturing the character and expressions of the abstracted moment. By utilizing painting techniques such as cropping, placement, color, shape and form, then, by further applying coats of thin acrylic washes and sharp pencil markings to his artworks, Putut succeeded in creating images that do not represent a ‘natural’ object, but, rather express an exploration of a whole new sensual dimension.
Artist’s statement (Bahasa Indonesia)
Belajar tentang kesadaran dan belajar dari kebajikan adalah belajar dengan mengalami sendiri secara langsung dan bukan karena percaya berdasarkan mitos atau pendapat yang diyakini orang lain. Menguji pengalaman diri sendiri baik yang bersifat vertikal ataupun horizontal. Yang mendapatkan pengajaran dari “hidup” ini sendiri maupun yang Ilahiah.
Hal tersebut di atas sangat berpengaruh pada proses berkarya saya, baik contents maupun visual. Tentunya sangat subyektif dan agak tersembunyi. Dan ini adalah pilihan saya dalam berkesenian, dan merupakan konsekuensi logis yang saya hadapi. Tapi berkesenian seperti ini membuat saya bahagia, karena saya punya keyakinan bahwa apa yang saya ceritakan melalui karya saya tetap ada orang-orang yang dapat menangkap atau menerima “tanda” yang saya sampaikan. Ibarat seseorang yang pernah mencicipi atau makan buah apel, tentunya dia dapat dengan mudah menceritakan bagaimana rasa, warna dan kondisi buah apel kepada orang yang punya pengalaman mencicipi atau makan buah tersebut.
Born February 5, 1964 (Semarang, Indonesia) – Died June 11, 2021 (Semarang, Indonesia)
Education:
Jurusan Seni Rupa (Visual Art Department), FPBS, IKIP Semarang, Indonesia (1987)
