One of Indonesia’s most prolific and renowned painters, Hendra Gunawan’s practice began in the 1930s and spanned the period of the Indonesian Revolution to the dictatorial New Order regime. My Family (1968) was likely painted when Gunawan was imprisoned due to his association with an alleged Communist faction in Indonesia. In the same year, the Cold War contestation in Indonesia concluded with the suppression and annihilation of Communist forces and the rise of a new dictatorial regime backed by the United States. Painted more realistically than Gunawan’s earlier works from the 1940s and 1950s, My Family depicts the artist sitting down in tattered pants with his wife and three children. In the backdrop, a crowd gathers in front of a nondescript building, perhaps the prison in Bandung where he was detained. After his release from prison in 1978, Gunawan moved to Bali and continued to paint until his final days, inspired by scenes from the daily lives of ordinary people.
This is the first time the work of Hendra Gunawan is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Anissa Rahadiningtyas
