Painter Yos Suprapto has sounded the ‘alarm for freedom of expression in Indonesia’ after the National Gallery of Indonesia took umbrage over a series of paintings criticising former president Joko Widodo and cancelled his solo show.
ArtAsiaPacific details how Suwarno Wisetrotomo, the curator of Kebangkitan: Tanah Untuk Kedaulatan Pangan (Revival: Land for Food Sovereignty), first demanded the removal of two paintings that depict the army facing down a writhing mass of people while the president sits astride a throne. Yos eventually agreed to cover the works with a black cloth, but they would remain in the exhibition. Then, however, Suwarno demanded the censorship of three further works, telling local press that the paintings were ‘vulgar’ and expressed the artist’s personal politics. At this point Suprapto refused and the show, which was supposed to run for a month until 19 January, was cancelled.
‘In conditions like this, artists are at the forefront of ensuring that art does not dissolve into authoritarianism and remains an effective tool for social criticism,’ Yos told ArtAsiaPacific.
Centre-left Joko Widodo was president for ten years until October 2024, in which period Indonesia’s GDP grow by a cumulative 43% and left office with a 70 percent approval rating.
