Thilly Weissenborn (attributed to) I Goesti Agoeng Bagoes Djelantik, Anakagoeng Agoeng Negara, Karang Asem 1931 gelatin silver photgraph 14 x 9.7 cm purchased 2006
and in two books in the 1920s and 1930s, inspiring interest in the indigenous life and landscape as well as the sensuous physical beauty of the Balinese people. Postwar artists and celebrities—including American André Roosevelt, who used smaller handheld cameras—flocked to the country to capture spontaneity and daily life around them, to affirm their view of Bali as a ‘last paradise’ , where art and life were one. In 1941, Gotthard Schuh published Inseln der Götter (Islands of the gods), the first modern large-format photo-essay on Indonesia. While romantic, the collage of images and text in Schuh’s book presented a vital image of the diverse islands, peoples and cultures that were to be united under the flag of the Republic of Indonesia in 1949. A particular feature of Garden of the East is a selection of family albums bound in distinctive Japanese or Batik patterned cloth boards as records of a colonial lifestyle (for the affluent) in the Indies. Hundreds of these once treasured narratives of now lost people ended up in the Netherlands in the 1970s and 1980s in estate sales of former Dutch colonial and Indo (mixed race) family members who had returned or immigrated after the establishment of the Republic of Indonesia. Through the National Gallery’s collection and exhibition program the rich heritage of images by poorly known, forgotten and unknown photographers in Indonesia comes to life for new audiences. Gael Newton Senior Curator, Photography, and curator of the exhibition The book accompanying Garden of the East: photography in Indonesia 1850s–1940s will be available at the NGA Shop and selected bookstores nationally.
22 ARTONVIEW | EXHIBITION