Credits
Preface
Thanks to the Museum Tekstil in Jakarta, a new publication on batik is being launched.
In 2000, I published a catalogue entitled Batik: Javanese and Sumatran Batiks from Courts and Palaces. His Highness Sultan Hamengku Buwono X and his wife Queen Hamas were kind enough to travel all the way from Yogyakarta to Germany to officially open the exhibition at the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne.
In 2006, the Deutsches Textilmuseum (German Textile Museum) in Krefeld invited me to display batik from my collection. The occasion was to mark one hundred years since the very first batik exhibition ever held in Germany—in Krefeld—had taken place.
In June 2015, the Museum Tekstil in Jakarta celebrated the opening of an exhibition entitled Highlights from the North Coast to Bimasakti, which presented pieces from Brigitte Willach and my collections. The planning and preparation for this event led to this, my third catalogue.
The main reason for producing this catalogue is to give thanks to my teachers, partners and heroes of more than forty years, among them Bambang Oetoro, Ardiyanto, Gianto C. P., Go Tik Swan Hardjonagoro, Iwan Tirta, Pak Soemihardjo, the Winotosastro family, T. T. Soerjanto, Ibu Eiko A. Kusuma, Nian S. Djoemena and Ibu Sa’adiah Munir Djody.
In 2010, Mary Hunt Kahlenberg and Ruth Barnes published their magnum opus, Five Centuries of Indonesian Textiles. This book certainly set a high standard and was greatly welcomed by lovers of Indonesian textiles. A second highly important publication was published in 2014—Sarong Kebaya by Peter Lee. It would be difficult to find a better book In this specialist field than Lee’s masterpiece, a result of many years of collecting and research.
My approach needed to be different. I asked long-standing friends and specialists in the field to share their initial encounter with batik and their thoughts on it. Not everyone I approached was prepared to go along with my idea, and I am very grateful to the eight international aficionados and scholars who did. In addition to their contributions, I wanted to illustrate the book with as many unpublished photographs as possible from the “good old days” or tempo doeloe. All of them had to be related to batik. Now I am proud to present family portraits and private photos of people who never expected to be published, not only because of their station in life but also because of their attire, in this case batik. Many of the photos were taken in Central Javanese studios. This area has been my favorite place from the beginning of my batik journey in the early 1970s.
The Museum Tekstil’s exhibition concept meant it was now my task to show as many fine examples of Pesisir (north coast) batik as possible. It was King Rama V of Siam, no less, who began collecting batik in Java in 1871 during his three trips to Indonesia. At the time, he favored the studio of Mevrouw Jans above all other artists. A hundred years later, I was able to locate batik signed by Mrs Jans. Thanks to Donald Harper and visits to auctions and markets in the Netherlands, it is possible to present some of this great artist’s work today.
The batik section of this book consists of three main parts that run consecutively: first, signed Dutch batik (batik Belanda) or, strictly speaking, Indische batik, sometimes referred to as Indo-European batik, made by Dutch people who had long settled in Indonesia or Eurasians of mixed Dutch and Asian (Javanese, Arab or Chinese) heritage in the Pekalongan area, dating from 1880 to ca. 1930; secondly, early unsigned batik from the Pesisir area of Java, stretching from Cirebon in the west to Lasem in the east; and, thirdly, fine examples of batik made by Chinese Peranakan, the descendants of Chinese immigrants, who were born in the Indonesian archipelago.
What all these pieces have in common is the high standard of their workmanship. This is why we want to offer a belated tribute to numerous people who remain largely unknown:
The entrepreneurs, mostly women, who successfully managed workshops, often employing more than a hundred workers.
The designers who were inventive and adventurous enough to create designs and develop color combinations.
The thousands of female batik workers skilled at drawing fine lines and small dots on cotton, often in not very comfortable working conditions.
The dyers who experimented with natural and plant dyes and, after the turn of the century, became acquainted with chemical dyes from Europe. Most of their recipes have been kept secret, and it is with good reason that their profession is referred to as “the dyer’s art”.
Last but definitely not least, we are indebted to the people who ordered batik from the entrepreneurs. The occasion was frequently a wedding, and it was quite common to have to wait a year for the order to be fulfilled. We are also thankful to all those who kept these treasures as heirlooms in their homes for many years despite economic and political upheavals.
It is these people—most of them anonymous—who merit our deep appreciation, admiration and gratitude. Without their persistence, good taste, patience and entrepreneur-ship, we would be unable to appreciate these treasures today. We owe it to them that, in 2009, UNESCO designated Indonesian batik Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. We bow our heads and say terima kasih for being able to enjoy these wonderful works of art today.
A short note will suffice on the form of the cloths and the material from which they are made. A sarong is approximately 200 cm long and 105 cm wide and is usually sewn at the ends into a tubular skirt. Traditional sarongs have a central decorative panel called a kepala or “head”, which differs in pattern and most often color from the badan or main “body” of the cloth. The sarong is worn with the kepala either at center front or back. A longer version of the sarong is the kain, also called kain panjang or “long cloth”, which is about 250 cm long and 105 cm wide. It is unsewn and is usually decorated with an all-over design although a half kepala may be positioned at each end of the cloth. All the batik textiles in this catalogue are made of cotton. Until about 1910, most, but not all batik was dyed using natural dyes.
In most cases, we do not know the names of the people in the photos. Should readers identify a family member or friend, the publishers would be grateful for further details.
The contributors agreed to publish their email addresses. Readers are welcome to contact them and share their own experiences and adventures in the field.
For most of the words written in italic in the captions, a brief explanation can be found in the Glossary on pages 168–9. The modern media will help readers obtain further information, if required.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to the editorial teams in both Cologne and Singapore as well as the curators of the Museum Tekstil in Jakarta.
Rudolf Smend
August 2015
An outdoor market in Java, ca. 1890.
From the Rudolf Smend & Donald Harper Batik Collections
1 Sarong, signed “Mevr. B. Fisßer Pek”, Pekalongan, ca. 1880.
