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Source: Garuda Inflight Magazine, February 2006
Stefan Buana
Struggling with Experimentation, Fighting for Rights
by Sari Koeswoyo and Amir Sidharta
As a son of a naval officer, young Stefan Buana never thought that one day he is going to be a painter. Born in 1971, as he grew up in Padang Panjang he
always thought that he would follow his father’s footsteps and also become enlisted with the marines. It was not until he was in 3d grade in junior high that he
started to think otherwise.
At the time, noticing the young man’s artistic talents, his drawing teacher encouraged him to continue drawing. Coincidently, Stefan’s passion in art was also
passed on from his father who always wrote and drew sketches of his experiences travelling the world with the navy. A sketch of a female nude inside his
father’s journal fascinated little Stefan and remained vivid in his memory. It was his father who ‘introduced’ him to Picasso, Henry Moore, Paul Gauguin, and even most of Stefan’s knowledge of art.
After graduating from junior high school, Stefan continued on to the Sekolah Menengah Seni Rupa/ SMSR, an art high school in Padang. In this school he
learnt more about the realist styles of Dullah and Basoeki Abdullah and also the style of Wakidi, a native Sumatran landscape painter. The objects of their
artworks were mostly landscapes and objects of nature. Other than that, Arabic calligraphy was one of the subjects in school that was compulsory.
Yet, experimenting with colours was the most favourable pastime in during his childhood. He found out that there is more in black than just plain black. When he
was drawing with charcoal that was made out different materials, such as coconut shell or various kinds of woods, he saw that black has more than one
shade colours, there are brownish, reddish, even greenish kinds of black. And if mixed with cooking oil, it produces yet another, different, kind of black.
Because his parents did not have money to put him to collage, Stefan wondered to Jakarta and ended up in Bali for a year. He was still yearning to enter the
Institute Seni Indonesia/ISI (Indonesian Art Institute) in Yogyakarta. Learning that some of his friends were already living in Yogya, with a very small amount
of money and a whole bunch of courage, he went to Yogya. Borrowing his friends’ money, he enrolled himself to ISI and passed the admission test.
Stefan learnt so much in Yogya, not only in college, but also on the streets of Malioboro. He learnt that being a street painter was very hard. He experienced the
joy and the pain. How he felt happy when he was drawing a nice, beautiful and generous girl, how he felt very lousy when he had to draw a very stingy old lady
who loved to bad-mouth and was bad-looking as well. Drawing sketches of people having eating supper using low tables, seated on the floor, in the typical
‘lesehan’ style of Yogya streets, needed extra skills. Stefan had to sketch faster and capture more accurately the character of the subjects, especially when
the subject is a child who did not stop moving around. Yet that was where Stefan met all his challenges; he had to draw in the noisy, packed and dimmed
lighted place and still capture the character of his object. He did all that in order to be able to pay his tuition. Every day, he started past seven o’clock every day
until dawn. Finally he stopped because he worried about his own health.
Due to his limited knowledge about art, during the time he stayed in Bali and also in Yogya, he found it very difficult to accept styles other than realism. When he
met other student from Bali during admission test, he realized that these Balinese have the ability to draw sketches with more character, expressive
and spontaneous. Most of the Sumatran students were shocked with this kind of style, their strength was the regularity of form instead of spontaneous
expression. Yet, again it gave Stefan a great deal of new experience.
Experimenting is part of his creativity. From his experiments he discovered his own techniques, which he called ‘fake craquelure’ and ‘rough craquelure’. One of
his techniques was accidentally discovered as he was applying a layer of paint over another layer nearby a stove and the ‘rough craquelures’ started to form.
He became very proud every time his teachers and fellow students admired and touched his painting to feel the ‘cracks’ in his artwork.
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In creating his artworks, Stefan tries to be honest to his inspirations or the concept art itself. His works talk about the life realities, from the lower classes to
the bourgeoisie. Sometimes his works are his own interpretation and fantasy of animal life.
His works developed parallel to his maturity in painting. In 1995 he experimented with mixed media, goat horn, wood and acrylic, rough woven goni cloth and
created Semangat Tempur I & II (“War Spirit I & II”). In 1996 he created other ‘bizarre’ works using acrylics and mixed media on canvas among others Sosok
Dalam Puing (“A Figure in the Debris”) and Obsesi (“Obsession”) that became the collection of the Taman Budaya Padang (the Padang Art Center).
With its strong character and personal style, in 1998 Stefan’s work was selected as best work in the ISI’s ‘dies natalis’ and the Refleksi Zaman (“Reflection of
an Era”) exhibition at Fort Vredeburg in Yogya. Both of the works were done using his ‘charcoal’ technique because he didn’t have any money to buy more
painting materials. His works in 1999 grew stronger in character and became more cynical towards life’s reality in Indonesia. Di Bawah Naungan Kaki (“Under
the Protection of the Foot”) and Dialog Wong Cilik (“The Common People’s Dialogue”) reminds us about how people are being suppressed by the power that has
no shame at all. These two works are using charcoal and rough in texture. Most of his works in 2000 and later were using fake and rough craquelure
technique. Umar Bakrie, a painting inspired by song with the same title by Iwan Fals, a ballade singer who liked social themes, was one of them.
Stefan’s most current paintings, which are to be shown at the Mitra Hadiprana in Kemang this month are so different from his previous works. His homeland,
West Sumatera has provided the inspiration for his paintings. The use of bright colours and simple forms offer a breath of freshness and shows more happy side
of Stefan. Stefan tried to show life in a village in Padang that has Javanese influence in his Kampuang Nanden Cinta where roofs of the houses are pitched like
other roofs on Java. The girl next door with her traditional dress and a ‘tangkulak tanduak’, a headdress that looks like a buffalo horn give him an inspiration for Gadih Minang. Meanwhile, in Rumah Bakincia, a house with water mill used to mill rice and other spices can be seen. Although there is a noticeable
difference, especially in theme and approach, his most recent works work are still filled with social and political criticism. This can be seen in Garuda Terbang
Ateh Mak, or Gajah Mada.
Somehow it seems that he tried to trace childhood memories through his paintings. Overall they seem rather comical and fun, similar
to the works he developed around 1999, especially Hampir Malam di Yogya (“Almost Night Time in Yogya”).
Stefan Buana, who one day dreamed of becoming an naval officer, has instead chosen to become a warrior of art. He continues to struggle with his experiments
in developing new techniques to create new works, fighting for his right and the rights of others through various oils on canvases as well as through other media.
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