Asian Art News, November/December 2006
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| MELANCHOLIC SANGUINE Oil on canvas, 140 x 180 cm, 2006 |
The recent exhibition of Kamil's oils, entitled Dance of Live, includes work from 2002 to the present. These paintings show the artist to be love with the drama and dignity of the human body alone and in groups, at play and rest, and its potential to inspire a sense of the freedom and joy of living. Yet, his people are entirely anonymous, without definite features, without the singularity of clearly defined personalities. It is only through the boldness of Kamil's line and colors that we obtain any sense of gender and personality.
COLOR and the drama of movement are the heart and the strength of the work by the young Indonesian painter, Multazam Kamil. It is this that lends his art its youthful spiritedness. The dynamic and the spirit of Kamil's oil paintings, however, owes a great deal to the work of such masters as Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) Henri Matisse (1869-1954). Paintings such as Cezanne's Bathers (1898-1905) and Matisse's 'Dance' (1910) and 'Joy of Life' (1905-1906) are clearly referenced throughout Kamil's oeuvre.
The recent exhibition of Kamil's oils, entitled Dance of Live, includes work from 2002 to the present. These paintings show the artist to be love with the drama and dignity of the human body alone and in groups, at play and rest, and its potential to inspire a sense of the freedom and joy of living. Yet, his people are entirely anonymous, without definite features, without the singularity of clearly defined personalities. It is only through the boldness of Kamil's line and colors that we obtain any sense of gender and personality.
As Kamil's protagonists cavort, dance, recline, or bind together in acts of love and joy, the rhythm of their actions draws the eye to their activity. This is enhanced by the strength of his colors. From subtle blues and greens to bold reds and yellows, from light cream to black to grayish white, all are used in dramatic and contrasting fashion to bring alive his studied situations. Works such as 'Temptation and Tenacity' (2006), with its tight geometry of naked and clothed figures, and the simple, open 'Acrobat' (2002) are good examples of Kamil's technique.
There is an obvious romanticism to Kamil's thinking, but it is not something that permeates all of his work. However, his art does have a certain youthful sentimentality to it that detracts from the power of his best paintings. This sentimentality is revealed in certain languid poses and such details as the dove.
The spirit of personal freedom and sensuality are well expressed in many works. There is, however, another side to Kamil's work, one that smacks sadness, loneliness, and alienation. The joy and the sadness, of the world as Kamil sees it, is brought together in 'Melancholic Sanguine' (2006) with a forcefulness that is missing in many of his other works, especially those that tend too much towards the romantic and the sentimental.
IAN FINDLAY
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