Contemporary and Modern Southeast Asian Art
Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art, long a relatively dormant field in the international art market, has begun to receive significant international attention. The countries of Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia have all produced notable modern and contemporary artists.
Indonesia leads the Southeast Asian art market, boasting the most diverse array of talented contemporary artists of all countries in the region. Artists like Hendra Gunawan (b.1918-d.1983), Kusuma Affandi (b.1910-d.1990), Lee Man Fong (b.1913-d.1988),
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Contemporary and Modern Southeast Asian Art
Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art, long a relatively dormant field in the international art market, has begun to receive significant international attention. The countries of Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia have all produced notable modern and contemporary artists.
Indonesia leads the Southeast Asian art market, boasting the most diverse array of talented contemporary artists of all countries in the region. Artists like Hendra Gunawan (b.1918-d.1983), Kusuma Affandi (b.1910-d.1990), Lee Man Fong (b.1913-d.1988), and Srihadi Sudarsono (b.1931) were early visionaries in modern Indonesian art, creating expressionistic works in the western tradition based on Indonesian subjects. Among contemporary artists, I. Nyoman Masriadi (b.1973) is well known for his figurative paintings laden with commercial and suggestive imagery. Agus Suwage (b.1959) and Budi Kustarto (b.1972) are both well known for their self-portraits, delving into the issues of personal and cultural identity in a nation with a highly diverse population. Painter Putu Sutawijaya (b.1971) is known for his distinctive use of androgynous human figures, creating complex rhythmic patterns from their nude forms. The members of the Jendela artist’s group, whose members include Rudi Mantofani (b.1973), Handiwirman Saputra (b.1975) and Yunizar (b.1971), have championed non-figurative contemporary art in Indonesia. Painters and sculptors Rudi Mantofani, known for his landscapes, and Handiwirman Saputra, first known for his still-life paintings, both use daring visual ploys to manipulate the pictorial space in each of their mediums, creating a playfulness that is at the same time disquieting. Yunizar’s paintings often resemble a collection of scribbles, creating simple landscapes or abstract designs out of repeated patterns.
Vietnam boasts several popular modernist painters, including Le Pho (b.1907-d.2001), Vu Cao Dam (b.1908-d.2000), and Mai Trung Thu (b.1906-d.1980). All three artists are known for their understated figurative works depicting rural Vietnamese life and people on both silk and canvas and fetch high prices at auction. The market for Vietnamese contemporary art has been slower than that for Vietnamese modern art, mostly due to a lack of the necessary infrastructure, including art schools that teach contemporary technique and galleries willing to support younger artists like Nguyen Thanh Binh (b.1954).
In the Philippines, modern artists like Fernando Zobel (b.1924-d.1984) and Romulo Olazo (b.1934) painted abstract expressionist works and became influential figures in the Southeast Asian art community. Contemporary artists growing up in the aftermath of Martial Law have shirked the abstract style of their predecessors and have engaged in the complex ideologies that plague a country recovering from extremism and violence. The dark, often foreboding work of artists such as Ronald Ventura (b.1973), Yasmin Sison (b.1972), Geraldine Javier (b.1970) and Nona Garcia (b.1978) is united in its thematic exploration of commodity and identity in the face of warfare and the modern age.
Thai artist Natee Utarit (b.1970) uses his paintings to explore the connection between the world of painting and the world of perception. In his series of still-life paintings, Utarit creates images that are mostly abstractions but still contain references to real world objects; believing that no painting can be truly divorced from objectivity.
Ahmad Zakii Anwar (b.1955), a Malaysian Muslim, has gained attention for his figurative paintings centered around Buddhist, Christian, and Muslim iconography. Figurative drawing has long been considered taboo among Islamic art; and Anwar uses his paintings to address his connection to his religion as an artist working with a taboo subject. (hide)
Examples of Contemporary and Modern Southeast Asian Art at Auction
Artists Associated with Contemporary and Modern Southeast Asian Art — 45 artists:
