Vision, Faith, and A Journey in Indonesian Art: A Conversation with A.D. Pirous, Kenneth M. George & Anissa Rahadiningtyas

*For viewing on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8TSASWkR-s

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Written by Kenneth M. George and Mamannoor in 2002, “A.D. Pirous: Vision, Faith, and A Journey in Indonesian Art, 1955-2002” is a thorough survey of Pirous’s life, works and artistic practice, and was born out of the long-term collaboration and friendship between Pirous and George. The book details Pirous’s stories about aspects of his life and artistic journey, highlighting his explorations of calligraphic forms, and his critical position in developing the practice and discourse of modern Islamic art in Indonesia.

Join us for a conversation between A.D. Pirous, Kenneth M. George and exhibition curator Anissa Rahadiningtyas as they explore Pirous’s works in “The Neglected Dimension” while delving deeper into the process of making his prints and paintings and the stories behind them.

This event is supported by Serambi Pirous and CIVAS | Center for Indonesian Visual Art Studies, Bandung Institute of Technology.

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About the speakers

ABDUL DJALIL PIROUS graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) (1964) and from the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY, United States (1969), where he studied printmaking and graphic design. Upon his return to Indonesia, he pioneered graphic design education at the Fine Arts Department of ITB and founded art and design studio Decenta in 1973. Subsequently, he served as the first Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Design ITB (1984–1990) and was an ITB Professor since 1994. He then built private gallery Serambi Pirous in 1992. He has been widely exhibited on a national and international scale. A complete description of his life and works can be read in the book “A.D. Pirous: Vision, Faith, and a Journey in Indonesian Art, 1955–2002” and “Painting Islam; Charity and Ethics of Islamic Art in Indonesia”.

KENNETH M. GEORGE is Professor of Anthropology Emeritus at the Australian National University, having served previously at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, at Harvard University, and as Editor of the Journal of Asian Studies (2005–2008). Ken’s ethnographic and art historical research in Asia began with a decade of work on the cultural politics of ritual violence in highland Sulawesi, Indonesia. He subsequently conducted a long-term project on contemporary Southeast Asian Islamic art in collaboration with Indonesian painter, A. D. Pirous—a project supported by fellowships from the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities (USA), among others. The fruits from that collaboration can be found in his book, “Picturing Islam: Art and Ethics in a Muslim Lifeworld” (2010), in numerous articles and book chapters, and in a recent lecture at the Musée National d’Art Moderne—Centre Pompidou and Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Paris.

ANISSA RAHADININGTYAS is an art historian who earned her Ph.D. in Art History at Cornell University for her research on the position and question of Islamic religiosity, rituals and performances in works of modern and contemporary art in Indonesia. She is currently an Assistant Curator of Islamic aesthetics in modern and contemporary Southeast Asia at National Gallery Singapore. Her research interests include comparative modernisms, Indian Ocean studies, postcolonial and decolonial theories, gender and feminism, environmentalism and Islamic studies.

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About the exhibition

“The Neglected Dimension” explores the period from the 1960s onward when calligraphy and abstraction became prominent modes of artistic production in Islamic art in Indonesia. This exhibition introduces four artists associated with the modernist artistic training in Bandung, Indonesia, a key site where experimentations with Arabic calligraphy and different forms of abstraction took place. The artists are Ahmad Sadali (1924 – 1987), A.D. Pirous (b. 1932), Haryadi Suadi (1938 – 2016), and Arahmaiani (b. 1961).

The exhibition will be housed in National Gallery Singapore’s Dalam Southeast Asia Gallery from 7 July to February 2024.