Vietnamese Refugees

Widayat, Vietnamese Refugees, 1979, oil on canvas, 143 x 217 cm, collection of National Heritage Board

Widayat once remarked, “Nature and human life with all its aspects have always fascinated me and is the source for creating my art. Human life,from the most primitive to the latest happenings, has never escaped my observation.” Better known for his paintings of flora and fauna done in a highly decorative style, Vietnamese Refugees is a sensitive observation of the plight of displaced peoples. Widayat’s sympathies are clearly with the Vietnamese, forced to leave a country they cannot remain in for an uncertain future in faraway lands.

Painted at a time when the refugee problem had reached crisis proportions in Southeast Asia – following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 – this painting was created in the same year (1979) that a joint communique by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) warned that the countries involved in accepting refugees had “reached the limit of their endurance and have decided not [to] accept new arrivals.”

Widayat was a student and subsequently lecturer at the Indonesian Academy of Fine arts (ASRI). The content of his work range from stock themes such as Islamic and Hindu- Buddhist stories and myths, fantasy flora and fauna, to the genre category.

The tendency towards “decorativism” is very pronounced in his paintings: as equally important as the subject matter are the design and ornamental elements in his work. Typical of his work also is the rich textural quality. At times, the paint is treated to produce a cracked and grainy effect, both as a decorative device as well as an embellishment of the work’s subject matter.